Disclaimers, etc.: In Teaser

Author's Note: First we have our requisite TnT scene, then a return to Shev's problem. (Re TnT, let's just say a mind meld might not always be a relationship panacea … and here's a heads up that this scene definitely includes some non-explicit sexual content.) Thank you very much, kind reviewers!

Trip sighed. It wasn't the first time this had ever happened to him, but it was certainly the first time in over a decade.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I was just a little too … stimulated. I guess I wasn't expecting you to suddenly meld with me after all your arguments against it." In fact, after the initial disorientation - which had nearly caused quite a different issue - experiencing what she was feeling on top of what he was feeling had pushed him right over the edge.

"I apologize," she said.

"I believe I'm the one who must apologize." He rolled towards her and started sliding a hand down her body. "That doesn't mean we can't…"

She put her hand on top of his to stop its progress. "There's no need, Trip. I did experience your experience."

"That can't be the same."

"It will suffice. And now you have experienced a mind meld, as you wished."

"Yes. But let's try it again sometime when we're not so otherwise occupied."

"Why?"

"Why not?" A suspicion formed. Had she perhaps intentionally sprung this on him when he was about as distracted as a man could get?

She'd claimed, before, that she was no longer keeping anything of great personal importance from him, but he didn't believe that for a second. First of all, "of great personal importance" sounded pretty damned legalistic. Second, he'd looked up Pa'nar Syndrome and noticed that until recently it was not only considered incurable, but terminal.

That was kind of an important detail for her to leave out … and presumably of rather great personal importance, at least at the time ... though he could just see her rationalizing that it was no longer relevant.

But she struck him as sincere when she said, "When we are being intimate is when I most feel an urge to touch your mind."

He blew out a long breath. The connection had been amazing. He would never again doubt that she was taking as much pleasure in the act as he was – perhaps even more. "Unfortunately, that might not be too helpful to our love life."

"Perhaps it will come in more useful in the future. My research into Human sexuality suggests that boredom will likely set in for you within the year."

He laughed in disbelief. "What? That's ridiculous!"

"Have you ever been with the same woman for more than a year?"

Um… well, no. He'd once made it to ten months…

She interpreted his silence correctly, and said, "So you don't know."

"But we're bonded, remember?"

"You're still Human."

"If I were reacting like a normal Human, I'd have gone all ga-ga over those Orion babes like all the other guys. But I didn't."

"You are not behaving like a Vulcan bond mate either. Vulcans only mate every seven years. You, however…"

"Hey, I'm just making up for lost time," he said. He had been keeping her rather busy. "Is it too much?"

"Hardly." She raised an eyebrow, and he wondered if she was making a thinly veiled commentary on what had just happened.

Who would ever have guessed T'Pol of Vulcan would be so enthusiastic about sex? That's why he didn't buy her argument about Vulcan males. "I still think that seven-year thing has got to be a myth."

"As I believe we have just learned, coitus is quite dependent on male arousal. So if a Vulcan male is not in his mating cycle…"

"He'd probably just need a little, I don't know … stimulation. He's still a man."

"A Vulcan man would see no logic in seeking stimulation."

"Who needs to seek it? If you're a guy, it's all around you, whether you're looking for it or not. You see a beautiful woman … even better, you find a beautiful naked woman next to you in bed …" How he loved seeing her lying next to him like this. "Maybe you smell her, or get a taste of her…" He leaned down and nuzzled the delicious hollow of her neck with his tongue. "If you're lucky, she lets you touch her…" He began a determined caress.

Bingo. That hadn't taken very long at all. "See, that's all it takes," he said. "Second time around, darlin'… maybe I could handle a mind meld."

"I don't believe I wish to take that risk," she said, and pulled him towards her with both hands.

x x x

Shev had grown up on a Tellarite colony planet, Shallashar, which had been settled primarily for its useful minerals and its location on a busy trade route. Because a number of species stopped in regularly for supplies and trading, with some even residing there, he was used to a far more diverse environment than Tellar Prime generally afforded. Now, he instinctively sought out the one bar in the capital that catered to off-worlders. It felt more like home.

"One ice-cold Andorian ale," he ordered, and took his drink to a dark corner booth. All Tellarite bars were painted in dark colors and poorly lit to mimic the relaxing conditions of a mud bath, but this one also flickered with automated neon signs and video feeds from around the galaxy. Throbbing Rigelian k'per music kept the atmophere loud and anonymous, and the grand array of liquor on offer – most of it also from off world – glowed ethereally on back-lit shelves. Most other bars in the capital simply dispensed their own beers and ciders and malts from kegs under the counter.

He wondered what Patania would think of this place, before realizing how unlikely it was she would ever step foot in it. Alien women sometimes did appear, but Tellarite women had their own areas, closed to men, just as the men's areas were largely closed to them. The men ran the government, defense, and most manufacturing. The women produced most of the planet's food, textiles, clothing, furniture, and toys. They were also rumored to waste a great deal of time on art, music, dance, theater, literature and the other lesser arts.

When Shallash had liberated the Tellarites from the domination of the oligarchs over four hundred years earlier, he had argued that romantic love caused citizens to choose their own family's interest over their society's, inevitably leading to entrenched inequalities. He had further argued that 'love' sparked all sorts of undesirable behavior, from dangerous contests of strength between males to brutal crimes of passion from disappointed suitors and spurned spouses. Nor was it a good fit with Tellarite biology, he (and generations of scientists since) had argued: in the wild, their evolutionary cousin the wild boar only came together for mating when the sows were in heat; the rest of the time, the sows lived in herds and the boars either lived in groups or alone. By this logic, attempts at monogamy were essentially pointless, as illustrated by Tellar's perennially high divorce rate. Worse, the oligarchs had used marriage as yet another way to keep the lower classes in their thrall, by requiring them to live in endless debt simply to pay for dowries, weddings, infants' naming ceremonies, children's social debuts, children's education, family domiciles, and divorces.

As a result of Shallash's reforms, marriage was now unheard of except among the aliens; a Tellarite generally only saw the opposite sex when he or she desired to mate. However, out on the colony planets there was much more mixing in everyday life, not from any great divergence from Shallash's ideals (though there was a bit more open dissent the further away one got from the home planet), but because there simply was not enough population to make each group fully self-sufficient. Perhaps because of this, it was also not unheard of for young people to pair off, at least for the first litter or two, and for the others to pretend they didn't notice. There were even a few unconventional couples who struck out into the unsettled lands and stayed stubbornly together.

If Shev could just get Patania back home, perhaps they could be one of them.

But first, he'd have to find her.

"May I join you?"

He looked up. The man who had spoken to him was a Coridanite, judging from the elaborate facial mask. "Why?" Shev said, already sniffing the air warily. As project leader, he had already been briefed on the possibility of an attempt at espionage from Coridan.

The man sat down without waiting for the invitation. He then surprised Shev by removing his mask. "I hate these things," he said. "They make me itch."

Shev said nothing. Enough Coridanites had lived on Shallashar, if only to work in businesses that catered to their own kind, that he knew what they looked like 'at home' without their facial gear. They were rather like the Humans, really – tall, lacking in fur, with only an extra distinctive wrinkle or two around their tiny little snouts. This particular Coridanite had nothing to distinguish him from any other of his kind.

"I heard your accent when you asked for the ale," the Coridanite said. "I've spent a lot of time on Shallashar myself. How long have you been on Tellar Prime?"

Shev said nothing. Perhaps this fellow would take the hint.

He didn't. Instead, he smiled easily and said, "As it happens, I specialize in helping individuals solve personal problems that fall outside official channels." He placed a card on the table, which Shev made no move to pick up. "Let me know if I can be of any assistance." He smiled again, put his mask back on, and left.

Shev looked at the card. All it said was Discreet Activities Undertaken, with a local contact number.

x x x

Malcolm went through the various scans and checks and took the lift down and was finally greeted on the primary level of the project by Shev. Judging from the steady traffic of Tellarites and a few others leaving as he came in, it was the end of the workday.

"Thank you for coming, Lieutenant Reed."

"You said you might have a security concern?"

Shev grunted, which Malcolm took as a sign to speak more quietly. Shev gestured for him to follow, so Malcolm did, even as the lights in the corridor began to dim to their night-time settings.

He instinctively felt for his phase pistol and frowned as he realized he had been forced to hand it over for safekeeping above ground. There was no reason to worry, but he felt a prickling along the back of his neck anyway.

Perhaps he shouldn't have come alone. Of course, Captain Archerknew exactly where he was. And there was no reason to distrust the Tellarites' project leader. "Well?" he said, when he had finally been led to Shev's own office.

The Tellarite turned on some loud atonal music and leaned forward. "Last night a Coridanite approached me in one of our local bars. I can't be sure, but I believe he might be a spy. If he is, I believe that our project may have been compromised from within, since otherwise I don't know how he could have known to approach me."

"And you're telling me before you tell any of your own people? Don't you feel you can trust Ambassador Gral?"

"I don't think the Ambassador is compromised, but the Ambassador is not particularly discreet. You appear to have a good handle on security matters. If this is a real threat, I am worried about alerting whoever on the inside is leaking this information. However, it could also be an innocent contact. I was hoping you could help me determine whether we are, in fact, at risk before I take this any further."

"Well," Malcolm said, "We can certainly try. Did you get any images of the man?" He shook his head. "Sorry, what am I saying? They always wear those masks, don't they?"

"Actually, he took it off. But no, I don't have an image. It happened very quickly. However, he gave me this."

Reed looked down at the card. "Huh. Well, the obvious thing is to set up a meeting in a safe place, which we will monitor. The question is just what discreet matter you want to propose he helps you with..."

Shev shifted uncomfortably. "There's someone … a female … who may be key to this investigation."

"A female? Why?" Reed said.

Shev grunted. "Because I am very concerned about her, and I believe he knows that."

x x x

Less than fifteen minutes later, after the Human requested and received permission from Ambassador Gral's office to search the women's database in light of a possible security exposure, and with Shev translating the screens that came up on the monitor in an auxiliary office in the complex, the Human had found her. It had only taken ruling out the other 534 Patanias currently residing in the capitol – not very difficult, since Shev knew where this one had been just the day before.

He knew this search might trigger alarms, especially if the Manageress had reported him. But the fact that Reed had undertaken the search instead of him might buy him some time.

"But this can't be your sister," Reed said. "According to this, she was born here, not on Shallashar."

"It's her," Shev said. Her ID photo was not nearly as attractive as Patania was in real life, but it was unmistakably his beloved. "It says she's scheduled for 'therapeutic cleansing' tomorrow. I don't like the sound of that."

"And this is who you think the Coridanite was referring to?" Reed said, sounding puzzled.

"Yes."

"I don't understand. How could a Coridanite even begin to get your sister transferred to Tellar Prime, let alone assigned to a hospital for 'therapeutic cleansing'?"

"All I know is that I have to get her out of there," Shev said.

"You'd need more authority than I have to do that."

"Oh, I've got another way."

The Human's eyes narrowed. "What is it?"

"This," Shev said, and took out a phase pistol and shot him.

To be continued…