Chapter 13

"F..forgive me. I didn't know the bath would be in use." Reg stated averting his gaze.

Stirba smiled at his shyness. "No need to apologise Commander Barclay. I was about to get out." she stood and walked shamelessly up the steps towards him.

"You don't bathe with handmaidens?" Reg asked, frantically trying to make small talk with the naked green woman.

"No, I never do. Would you like me to call them for you?" she approached him, the water glistening on her skin, her hair wet.

"No, I just wanted to soak for a while." he swallowed nervously and clenched his jaw.

"Your back is still giving you pain?" she asked, standing close and gazing up at him.

"Er…yes." he replied. "A little."

"Your cheeks are turning red." she noted. "Is that what they call blushing?"

"Um…yes I suppose." he admitted, trying to look everywhere other than at the nubile body that was painfully close to his.

"My brother does not blush." she stated. "But then he knows no shame I suppose." She moved over to the seat and picked up a robe. "I will cover myself if my body embarrasses you. I had heard that Humans have difficulty differentiating between nudity and sex but you are the first full Humans I have met. I now have a greater understanding of the word 'shy' and I thank you. It isn't a concept easy for us to grasp. I was unaware it would be so…endearing." She smiled as she slipped on the robe. "Come over here?" she held out her hand to him.

"Why? Wh..wh…what are you going to do?" he asked nervously.

She smiled. "I was going to show you the controls for the bath."

"Oh, of course." He followed her over to the panel.

"This is the recycler that cleanses the water. This selects the substance you wish to bathe in. There are many options, mud, sand, even liquid plasma to name a few but you may prefer this setting, the minerals in the water can be soothing and simulate a volcanic hot spring. This is the temperature control."

"You had it set very cold." he frowned. "What happened to your lip? It's bleeding." he reached out and turned her face with her chin gently.

"I tripped and bumped into a doorway, I am so clumsy." She turned away. "The replicator is over there for clothing and towels. It is a Federation device. Enjoy your bath Commander." she said and left hurriedly, wiping her lower lip with her thumb and inspecting her blood.

…

"How was your bath, did it help?" Geordi asked Reg as he returned and sat on a couch opposite.

"A cold shower might have been a better idea if we had one." he replied. "I lived in one cage or another for eight months and now I'm elbow deep in bare green bosoms. Is Data still exploring the ship?"

Geordi nodded. "The handmaidens wouldn't leave you alone huh? Fascinated by your Human male anatomy again?" Geordi grinned. "I might take another bath myself. I quite enjoyed being pampered. I can see why women like spa programs so much."

"No." He smiled shyly and blushed. "I walked in on our high born lady in the tub."

"What did she say?" Geordi asked incredulously.

"Surprisingly little. She just walked up to me stark naked and asked about blushing. Apparently we Humans have problems differentiating between nudity and sex."

"Did you look?" Geordi asked.

"Of course I looked, the woman's body is incredible. Her breasts are so pert and luscious they may actually defy the laws of physics." Reg told him. "Do Orion's usually take cold baths?" he frowned.

"Not that I'm aware of. The girls with us didn't seem to mind it hot." Geordi pointed out. "She took a cold bath?"

"Ice cold, and I think someone hit her. She's got a split lip. She said she was just clumsy when I asked about it."

"She can kill with a thought, who would dare hit her?" Geordi wondered.

"Oh, boy we're in big trouble." Reg stated and began pacing, "I didn't think of it till now but I heard about her. The woman who can kill with a thought. They talk about them in the slave camps. They call her the Enchantress and she's…lethal, her brother must be the one they call the Puppeteer. The slavers are terrified of them, they don't even know if they're alive or m…monsters of some sort, legends, folk tales they tell their children to get them to behave. Eat your greens or the Enchantress will kill your father without leaving a mark. Mind your mother or the Puppeteer will play with you like a doll." He wrung his hands nervously. "I knew we were going from the frying pan into the fire. I should have stayed in my box in that hellhole. I'd be better off."

"Reg, no way were you better off there. You were going out of your mind and starving to death." Geordi argued.

"Y…you don't get it. He can alter how you think…."

"He can't alter how Data thinks with telepathy, and she doesn't seem to be cruel aside from when she killed the slave master. They want to exchange us for…I don't know…something and as long as we have value they'll keep us alive."

"What if they want weapons? Or something Starfleet can't give them?" Reg asked desperately. "We'll be worth nothing."

"Then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Geordi stated. "Believe me, Data and I have been in tougher and much less comfortable scrapes."

…

"Commander." she hissed softly in the dark. "Wake up Mr Barclay, I need your help?" she pleaded.

"What's wrong?" he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"I require you to impregnate me." Stirba whispered. "I cannot take it any longer, the burning is too much."

"The, what? What are you talking about? I can't get you pregnant, you're…You're burning up, are you alright?"

"No, it is the Blood Fever. The only time I am able to conceive and I will not bear the young of an ignorant Green boar. I wish to see intelligence in the eyes of my child, sensitivity. Not the dull stare of a half-wit." she climbed astride him, pulled free her robe at the shoulder and cast it aside.

"This…look this isn't a good idea." he protested as the naked Green Woman ground against him. "I'm not exactly the best genetic material…I have dormant genes and…God you're beautiful…" he grasped her hair and pulled her into a desperate kiss. "No, this is wrong…" he pushed her to arm's length. "I can't take advantage like this."

"My brother desires me…the very thought disgusts me." she wept. "I am to marry a man who repulses me, my mother has decreed it and I would rather die than accept either of those options." she whispered, her lip quivering.

"Did your brother hit you?" Reg asked her softly and touched her lip gently with his finger.

She nodded. "When I refused his advances. His cruelty is not limited to the slavers and those we are in feud with. He is twisted, like our mother. They want to trade you all for my father. He's a powerful man and my mother despises him. They plan to torture and kill him but I bear him no ill will. My mother mated with him of her own volition and I would not exist were it not for his seed."

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked.

"Because I have no one else to turn to." she sobbed and he sat and pulled her into his arms.

"I'll talk to the others. Maybe you could ask for asylum? You're part Human, I don't see how the Federation could refuse." he suggested and moved a lock of hair from her eyes.

"Then you'll help me?" she sniffed.

"How can I refuse a damsel in distress." he smiled. She kissed him softly on the lips and hers felt scalding hot. She pushed him back on the bed and pulled open his top, baring his chest.

"I know how much you want me." she whispered, chewing her lip. "I can feel it here…" he gasped as she tore open his pants and pulled him free. "It's in your eyes…"

"Oh boy…" he gulped as she clasped his hand to her breast and writhed against him. Massaging his cock with her other hand. "Oh boy, oh boy…"

"I can give you pleasure more intense than you ever thought possible. Not just your body but your mind. I can link my soul to yours and we can join in ways more intimate and deep than you have ever experienced. You won't know where you end and I begin." She sighed and threw her head back as she rubbed against him. "My Vulcan blood is on fire, yours can be too."

"It can?" he asked, gazing up at her. "How?"

"I can ignite your blood and make you burn for me as much as I burn for you." she whispered. "But you have to tell me that you want me. I desire an equal, not a slave."

"Please?" he pleaded, overwhelmed by the closeness of her body and her scent, grasping her waist. "I need to be inside you…"

"You'll give me your seed?" she asked.

"I will, I'll die if I don't have you." he whimpered. "Please?" she rose and she mounted him in one fluid movement with a soft breathless moan. "Oh fuck, you're so tight." he wept.

"Should I stop?" she asked him breathlessly, her hands pressed against his chest.

"No don't stop, don't ever stop." he pleaded.

"Do I feel good to you?" she asked as she rocked her pelvis.

"Yes." he cried, his back arched and his eyes shut tight. "You feel like heaven, divine. God don't stop."

"Look at me?" she asked softly. "Look at me, my beautiful man?" he looked up into her eyes. "Are you ready to go deeper?"

"I…I can't I..I..I'm sheathed to the hilt." he replied desperately.

She smiled gently at him and grasped his head in her hands. She kissed him with furious intensity, her breasts pressed against his chest. He caressed the velvety soft skin of her back, utterly lost in the sensation of her body. Suddenly she gasped and threw her head back violently and he felt as though he was ripped from his body and into hers.

"Sweet Little Flower." Edara the Wise smiled down at her tiny baby granddaughter as she held her in her arms. "One day all this will be yours." she whispered into her ear and kissed her forehead. She glanced at the boy-child still in the crib with fear in her eyes. "I will get you your own crib, it is wrong for you to have to share with that…thing." she stated coldly. She winced at the images that came unbidden into her mind. Horrors that came from her own blood, the monstrous thing that had shared a womb with her Little Flower.

"How could you Mother?" Tira spat. "That honour should have been granted to Aedax."

Edara set her jaw at her daughter's slight, as Tahedri she was to be called that or by her given name by blood relatives, any other appellation was an insult. "It is for me to decide what honour is granted and to whom. Lural is the Master of the Chalices and that is final."

"My son is the only one of your grandchildren without a title. Did you think I would not notice? Her ice grey eyes flashed with anger.

"I have made arrangements for the twins to visit Vulcan." Edara stated coldly. "T'Pandra has offered to train them, they would both benefit from mental discipline."

"I forbid it. I am their mother, not you." Tira argued.

"You let them run wild like beasts of the forest. You are no kind of mother!" Edara shouted and the hall fell silent. "Either the children go to Vulcan or you go to the Homeworld and I will raise them as I see fit."

"I will see you dead before you take my children from me." Tira spat as she stood. She grabbed a tiny arm in each hand and left the hall, pulling her twins behind her.

"But I want to sit with Edara." Stirba protested.

"Shut up." Tira screamed and back handed her across the face. She fell to the floor crying and sobbing. Tira grabbed her wrist and dragged her the length of the corridor, screaming on her knees as she begged her mother to let her get up, promising she would do as she was told.

"Wake up." Tira whispered as she woke her children. "You need to see something important, come with me." The twins sleepily rubbed their eyes and clambered out of their beds. "Do you know what this is?"

"It's a dancerknife." Aedax replied with a grin. Stirba glared at him. She knew he'd pulled the answer from her mind and beat her to it. He always did. Tira activated the energy blade and Aedax watched transfixed as she turned the blue image and let the dim light flash across its surface. "Is it sharp?" he asked, raising his small hand to touch it.

"It is extremely sharp, don't touch. The blade is for our enemies Aedax. We will make them bleed. We'll make them all bleed. Follow me." she instructed and they obediently trailed behind her, holding hands.

They walked from room to room, leaving carnage in their wake as Tira plunged her blade into each slumbering form again and again, her hands stained with emerald blood. Stirba gripped her brother's hand with tears running down her face as she watched the bloody slaughter of her cousins, uncles and aunts. Every living being who bore the Barin name, everyone she loved until they found an empty room. Tira screamed with frustration and anger and ran to her mother's quarters. Aedax dragging his weeping twin by the hand with a smile on his lips.

"Where are they?" she screamed, covered in blood. "Nareev and Lural. What did you do with them?"

"Tira, by the Nine Hells what have you done?" Edara whispered, her expression horrified. She paled further as the twins followed her into the room, their faces and clothing spattered with blood. "You made them watch?" she asked incredulously.

"I've ensured my claim to your title." Tira grinned. "You will die without declaring an heir and power will pass to me."

"Stirba, you are the Tahedri. My chosen heir, do not let your mother convince you otherwise." Edara hissed as she wrestled her daughter for the blade and drew one of her own. Tira recoiled with a cut to her cheek and the two women lunged together in a final embrace. Edara fell to the floor, blood coursing from her chest. "Little Flower…" she whispered, her hand outstretched to her granddaughter.

"She didn't mean it child. I am the Tahedri. The woman was mad, insane." She pressed the dancerblade into her outstretched hand. "She killed her entire family. She would have killed us too. Remember that." Tira chewed her lip thoughtfully. "We need to find those boys. She may have sent men after them, to kill them." She turned to her children and grinned.

"You have found them?" Tira looked up as she signed papers. "Where are they?"

"The captain of the ship assigned to transport them back to school on the Homeworld panicked when he heard about the massacre. He feared death should they be found on board if it was a coup and sold them to slavers."

"Slavers?" Stirba looked up from her book and approached her mother's desk on hearing the word.

"Did he tell you which slavers?" Tira asked her advisor.

"Yes Tahedri." the man replied.

"Go to them. Kill the masters and release the slaves, find those princes." Tira ordered.

"And if they have sold them?" the advisor asked.

"Find out who to and kill them anyway. They must be found. Round up the crew from the ship, bring them here. I want them put to death by chuulak in the city square. People must know that selling a prince means a slow agonizing death." Tira intoned.

She wept brokenly, sitting in the filth of the cage in her fine robes, the man's head cradled in her lap. She gazed at his mutilated body, dead, cold and left to rot. The slavers had left four bowls of slop and ignored the fact he was dead or dying for days.

"By the Thousand Gods Stirba." Aedax hissed in her ear. "He was a threat to us. He had a valid claim as none of us are legitimate."

"He was our cousin!" she wailed. "We played together as children, shared the same wet nurse!"

"He was foolish enough to get sold, it's his own fault. Master of the Chalices." Aedax spat on Lural's corpse. "Rot with your effeminate brother in the Nine Hells. Neither of them were worthy of your tears sister." he stalked away.

Stirba looked up at one of the handmaidens. "See to it he is prepared for burial on our return to Barin Prime. I want him buried with full honours beside Nareev. Remember he is a prince." she instructed and left him in their care. As she walked away she savagely wiped the tears from her eyes. She would avenge the death of her cousins on all the slavers. She would unleash her bloodthirsty twin on them and would never stop until every market was a graveyard and all the slaves were free.

"I won't let them hurt you, I promise." she whispered as she lay in his arms with their legs entwined. "I'll return you to Starfleet, whatever happens. The others too."

"Given what we shared you should be more worried about yourself." Reg whispered and kissed her forehead tenderly. "You should be the Tahedri, not your mother or your twin."

"Don't say that. Don't even think it. He'll kill you if he finds out you know the truth." She cupped his cheek in her hand. "I never meant for you to see those…horrors."

"It's alright. God knows what you got from me. My parents weren't exactly perfect either." he stated. "So which are you? The evil bitch who smiled as a slaver gasped his last or the sweet creature who shielded my eyes from the sun? Who is the real Stirba the Enchantress?"

"Perhaps I am both." she whispered.

"I'm glad you're feeling better, but I really hope I didn't get you pregnant."

"Why?" she asked looking hurt.

"Don't get me wrong, under different circumstances I'd be thrilled to become a father but…How are you going to explain it to your new husband? What if the baby looks Human?"

"I'm half Human." she argued.

"Then there are the dates…"

"I doubt he can even count. Besides, I'm not marrying him." she stated.

"They'll kill you." he looked at her earnestly.

"Then I shall die." she replied and stood. He watched as she walked around the bed and picked up her robe.

"Do you have to leave?" he asked softly.

"Yes. I do." she replied with a smile and fastened her clothing at the shoulder.

"Did…did this mean anything to you? Or was it just the pon farr?"

She kissed him tenderly. "It will always mean something my beautiful man." she whispered. "I will remember you until the day I die and we will always share the bond we made."

"Just out of interest, how many bonds have you made exactly?" She grinned wolfishly as she slipped from the room. "Great, I don't feel used at all." he muttered sarcastically.

…

"Reg, I don't know how to put this," Geordi began, "you smell of really weird sex funk."

"Do I?" he replied with alarm as he put down his mug of coffee. He sniffed his armpit and his shirt and sneered. "I need to bathe."

"You are exhibiting the combined aromas of a sexually mature Green Orion female and a Vulcan female in the advanced stages of pon farr." Data stated. "That explains her perspiration."

"Yeah, and the cold baths." Geordi grinned at Reg. "You dog Barclay." he punched his upper arm repeatedly in a friendly way. "Did you sort her out? Is her pon farr resolved?"

"It seemed to be when she left. She wanted me to knock her up and I may well have." he admitted. "She's the rightful Tahedri, I'm not supposed to say it or think it but it slipped out."

"That's too much information Reg." Geordi looked appalled.

"Telepathically, I don't mean…" Reg scowled. "Nothing could slip out of that, it's like a flea's ear…"

"Please, just…stick to the point." Geordi pleaded.

"Her mother and brother are…nuts. Tira slaughtered her entire family and took the twins along to watch when they were five and blamed it on the previous Tahedri. Two cousins, Nareev and Lural escaped and somehow ended up passed around the slave markets for years until they both died. Stirba vowed to free all the slaves in revenge, but she only kills the master and she never draws blood, she's seen more than enough to last a lifetime. Tira plans to marry her off as part of some trade negotiations and make her favourite boy Tahedri, apparently she secures his loyalty with sex. We are to be traded for the Judge Advocate General. He's the twins father and Tira wants revenge."

"What for?" Geordi asked.

"Unpaid child support, how do I know? The woman is psychotic." Reg replied. "Oh and the Puppeteer's telepathy requires line of sight, as does her telekinesis although they can use a visual com link."

"You're like that spy. You seduce women and they tell you everything." Geordi slapped Reg on the shoulder.

"Hardly, she pinned me to the bed and practically raped me. Got me begging to let me have her before I knew it. She's…phenomenal. She says she wants to help us. I offered to help her ask for asylum with the Federation."

"Can we trust her?" Data asked him.

"I don't know. I think I was just a convenient lay. A better option to her brother or a green thug. He was the one who hit her, the brother. He wants to…" he pulled a face.

"Oh great. We're caught up in some weird incestuous love triangle." Geordi stated.

"I'm going to have a bath I think. I'll see you later." Reg stated, draining his coffee.

"Well that answers a lot of questions. Maybe we should bring this Barclay along to every timeline and get him to make a mating bond then tell us all he found out. It would be more use than waiting for Andrews to show up." Geordi sipped his coffee. "Where is that ass-wipe anyway?"

…

Reg walked into the bathroom and smiled. "You really should lock the door." he suggested.

"Perhaps I've been waiting for the right man to walk in on me." Stirba smiled as she sponged herself.

"You look like Cleopatra in that bath." he told her with a smile.

"Who is that, a former lover?" she asked.

"No, she was the Queen of Egypt thousands of years ago, she was Pharaoh, a position usually held by men, a very powerful woman. She used to bathe in ass's milk."

The princess looked scandalised. "Do you mean…excrement?"

"No, not that kind of ass." He laughed, "an ass is…like a donkey, a type of horse. A quadruped beast of burden."

She nodded to indicate she understood. "And Egypt is a planet in your solar system?"

"It's a country on Earth. Back then the Human race was confined to one planet."

"Only one planet." her eyes widened. "Was she beautiful?"

"She was said to be, but what made her most attractive was her charm, her wit and the sweet tone of her voice."

"Was she a seductress?" Stirba asked as he paced around the sunken bath.

"Oh yes. She was married to both her brothers in turn, which was the custom in the Egyptian royal family at the time as they believed they were their gods incarnate and wanted to keep their bloodlines pure. They both ended up dead, that's how she became Pharaoh. She was the lover of Julius Caesar, the Emperor of the Rome and had a son with him, then when he was assassinated she moved on to his General Mark Antony and had twins with him, a boy and a girl and later another boy. She was renowned as a lover."

"What happened to her?" she asked.

"They say that following Mark Antony's death she held a poisonous snake called an asp to her bosom and received a fatal bite."

"Oh." Stirba replied and blinked. "How pathetic. Ritual suicide is part of our culture but not for reasons like that." she looked up at him. "Why are you just standing there? Don't you want to join me?"

"I didn't like to presume." He smiled shyly.

"I doubt Julius Caesar or Mark Antony needed to be asked twice." She smiled seductively.

"Which am I, Caesar or Mark Antony?" he asked as he jumped in fully clothed, making her giggle.

"You're a military man, you must be Mark Antony." She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Unless you're the asp and you plan to bite my tits."

"Tempting." he admitted and kissed her deeply. "I wondered if last night was a one-time thing."

"Did you want it to be?" she whispered.

"I could die a happy man if it were." he admitted. "I don't know how I feel about you. It's all happened so fast."

"I know what you mean. You please me and it's been a long time since I experienced the joy I did with you last night. If ever." she admitted. "You're a little over dressed for the bath." She smiled and helped him pull off his shirt. "That's better." she said as he removed his pants. "Turn around." she whispered and he reluctantly complied. "What did they do to you?" she gently ran her hands over the scars on his back.

"You said yourself it could've been worse." He forced a smile. She kissed his shoulder softly and began to weep. "Hey." he said and turned to face her, taking her in his arms. "You saved me, you have no reason to feel bad." He kissed her forehead and cradled her head against his shoulder.

"How touching. The noble Stirba the Enchantress acting as a handmaiden to a Human slave." Aedax stated. "How the mighty have fallen."

"It's my honour to bathe such a man." she stated. "He makes you seem a j'hordak by comparison."

"Does he? I'm a shadow compared to him?" He smirked as Reg grasped the back of her neck and plunged her head under the water. She struggled frantically against him, grabbing at his arm. She forced him away with her mind, slamming him into the side of the bath and rose from the water gasping, throwing back her hair and glaring at her brother with fury in her eyes and she began to glow. Her skin incandescent.

"Sister, it was a joke." Aedax stated, looking fearful at the dark expression on her face and the fact she was bathed in luminous green light.

"No one is laughing." she replied in her mother tongue as she walked towards him in the water slowly. "I warned you what would happen if you struck me again."

"I didn't strike you. No one struck you." he backed away nervously.

"No, you tried to make my lover drown me." she intoned, "Mother will be furious. Who will she whore out to Norai if you kill me Aedax? Perhaps she'll turn you into a gelding and send you off to fuck him? Maybe you could shit a baby out of your pansy backside for him?" She continued approaching him. "Does my body excite you as you hoped brother? Is your tiny cock pulsating with joy? Or is it wilting with fear like the limp maggot the handmaidens laugh about behind your back?"

Aedax stopped as he bumped into someone. Hands grasped his jaw and the back of his head and twisted. Reg let him fall to the floor dispassionately. "Are you alright? Did I hurt you my sweet?" Reg asked her in Orion and took her hand to help her step out of the bath. He grimaced at the sight of his finger marks starting to bruise on her neck.

"It is nothing." she waved it off as her brilliance began to fade. "You speak Kolari?"

"Only Low Kolari, not much need for the High language among slaves."

"You have the sweet lyrical voice for it my beautiful man." She cupped his cheek in her hand. "I will teach you. You will need it as my consort."

"Who says I'll have you?" Reg took her in his arms and kissed her, her twin dead on the ground between their feet. "The water will be getting cold and I did come here for a bath." He swept her off her feet, stepped over the corpse and carried her down into the water.

"You shouldn't be carrying me if your back pains you." she told him.

"You're light as a feather." he said with a smile as he released her legs and held her against him. "You're the most beautiful korgasant I have ever seen." he whispered and stroked her cheek with his hand.

She laughed. "I don't think that's what you meant to say. Korgasant means tentacled-mauler. It's a predatory animal on Daros IV."

"I meant to say 'creature' but you are a predator. It kind of fits." He smiled and kissed her lips tenderly. "Does it bother you that he's still here?" I'll get rid of him…"

"No." she looked at her brother's body, his neck so twisted his dead green eyes seemed to be looking straight at them. "I want him to watch us fuck." Her eyes flashed with delight as she ran her hands over his chest. "Unless it will put you off?" she asked with a concerned expression.

Reg tilted his head considering her words. "You are Orion to the core aren't you my sweet Enchantress?"

"We call ourselves Kolari, F'deraxt'la." He snorted, the Orion word for Federation was very similar to one that meant someone born of three parents, all of whom were blood relatives. It was a thinly veiled insult of course, and typical of the Kolari sense of humour. He pulled her closer and his lips met hers in a ferocious deep kiss. He slid his hands down her back to her firm bottom and lifted her higher in the water then pressed her against the marble side of the bath. She moaned with pleasure, grasping frantically at his shoulders, his back as he slammed into her again and again.

"Don't stop, please don't stop?" she begged, her face rapt with pleasure as she gazed into his eyes, her arms around his neck.

…

"Anyone else you'd like me to kill and throw at your feet?" Reg asked as he fastened her robe at the back of her neck. "I could use the practice. I'm out of form. I used to get one eighty degrees out of a neck every time." He frowned as he looked at the body on the floor and flexed his shoulder, squeezing it with his hand.

"Only one at present, but she's mine to kill." she replied as she clasped bracelets to her upper arms. "You're surprisingly good at it."

"I'm my mother's son." he smiled as he put on a shirt. "Starfleet advanced combat training is certainly useful at times."

"Indeed," she smirked. "It's not the first time I've seen someone kill a man with their bare hands but I've never seen anyone do it stark naked, dripping wet and with an impressive erection."

"All part of the service, Milady." He smiled and gave her a flamboyant bow.

"Do your friends know you're a…Section 31 Operative… is it?"

"No, they seem to think I'm an engineer." he snorted with laughter. "It must be the cover story my handler gave them. I hope they don't expect me to fix anything." He smirked. "They act like they know me but I never met them before the Slave Camp. I'd heard of them though. They have quite a reputation in Starfleet." He commented, then looked concerned as her expression changed to one of sorrow.

"We'll be arriving at Barin Prime soon." she whispered and turned away. "You'll be going home."

"We could keep going, take you with us to the nearest Starbase?" he entwined his fingers with hers as he held her, her back against his chest. "I could find you an apartment on Earth and keep you as my concubine." he smiled. "I might even marry you if you behave yourself and manage not to kill anyone."

"Who says I'll have you?" She smirked then sighed deeply. "I have a duty to my people. I'm the lesser of two evils as your people say."

"I have a duty to the Federation and Starfleet, and you knew that long before last night." He kissed the top of her head affectionately.

"I can't believe the moment has come. I've been waiting so long, maintaining my cluros." She chewed her lip thoughtfully. "It took so much of my strength to hide it within my mind from Aedax as well as outwardly. I killed them…"

"Now there's a surprise…"

"No, you asked how many lovers I made a bond with. Two muni, inadvertently in the… the heat of the minute." he recognised the term muni, it meant blended and was the word used for non Orions that were naturalised into their society.

"Moment. The heat of the moment." he corrected.

"I loved them, and I killed them because they knew what I was planning. They weren't like us…they didn't understand. I made it quick for them, but that's of little comfort." She set her jaw, clearly distressed at the memory.

"I know how hard it's been." he told her. "You aren't alone anymore." He smiled. "You have an ally now."

"I have another confession to make…" She turned her head. "I had another motive for climbing into your bed."

"I didn't really think it was my fantastic body and my alluring charm," he told her. "Go on, break my heart." he said sarcastically.

"From my studies I learned creating a mating bond carries a side effect of making Human males immune to the effects of Orion pheromones. I hoped that I could make you…sympathetic to me and immune to my mother's charms. Your mechanical friend is already immune…"

"You planned to seduce Geordi too." Reg realised and paused to think about it. "So why didn't you? And why did you pick me first?"

"My pon farr made me extremely fertile and you said yourself that I may have to pass the child off as another man's. You are a similar build to my father from pictures I've seen. I could pass your child off as being from my side of the family…"

"But not if the child looked African." he realized.

"When we created our bond I realised you weren't what you appeared. I no longer needed to seduce another ally."

"I think it's that I ruined you for all other men." he whispered in her ear and kissed her shoulder softly.

She snorted derisively and he frowned in response, his ego a little bruised at her reaction. "If I make a mistake, if anyone realizes my plan the palace guard will hack me to pieces to defend her. If that happens will you complete my task?" she asked plaintively. "Avenge me?"

He turned her to face him and gazed into her dark green eyes. "I'd kill anyone who hurt you, my Tahedri." he kissed her fingers softly. "After the way she's treated you killing her would be my pleasure. Especially if I have to seduce her to do it." He smirked at her vexed expression which soon turned to a soft smile.

"Unfortunately she only mates with men if it will benefit her in some way. She prefers the company of females when it comes to pleasure."

"I'll have to find a way to make it in her interests then. Thanks for the tip." he said earnestly.

"Don't you dare mate with that…." she hissed angrily. "Even if I am dead."

"I'm teasing." he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight with a smile on his face. "Of course I won't and you won't die." he whispered into her hair. "I won't let you."