AUTHOR'S NOTE: At the end of last chapter, I asked for suggestions where you readers would like the K/S action to take place. As I could have guessed (since you're reading my stories), you are all perverts. Creative perverts. I couldn't include all suggestions, of course, which is the reason chapter five contains two dream sequences. Special thanks to Milton Perry and Trekkfan.

Chapter 5 - As You Like It

Before he woke up the next day, Kirk had disturbing dreams. He had he kind of dreams you get when you're still tired and don't want to get up just yet. He dreamed he got up, went to the bathroom, got dressed and took the elevator to the bridge. When he reached the bridge everything looked like it should, except Spock was sitting in the captain's chair. Kirk went over to the chair to say 'good morning' and expected Spock to get up, but instead Spock took hold of his arm and pulled him down to sit in his lap. Spock put his long fingers in between Kirk's and gripped his hand hard. He put his other arm around Kirk's waist and held him close. Their noses were almost touching, Kirk felt the hot breath of his first officer enter his own mouth.

"Good morning... my captain." Spock leaned in and was going to kiss him, he was so close, he... Kirk woke up with his erection tangled in the bed sheet.

Spock's dreams were not so rose-coloured. In his dream, the whole ship and everything in it had taken on a brown sepia tone, which made it impossible to tell the different uniforms apart. Spock saw himself wandering about the ship like he was mad, using bad language and pursuing Kirk in the corridors. All the time, he was getting closer. Closer, by Nine Inch Nails. What did that mean? He had to find Kirk, he needed him, he would be dead without him, but when he finally caught up with Kirk, he... hit him. Struck him down. Hurt him. Took him. To escape facing him again after this heinous crime he took the shuttle Galileo and left the ship. Spock woke up with no appetite for breakfast.

He managed to avoid captain Kirk until it was time to board the shuttle with the rest of the landing party. Spock was carrying both his own and Lily-Lee's tricorder.

"There you are, Spock, I didn't see you at breakfast."

"Logical, since I was not there." Kirk could not think of a good reply to that, so he had to settle for giving Spock five concerned looks and one worried glance while they waited for the shuttle to take off. They were going down to the pH-troubled ocean of the planet below. The Galileo had seven seats, and was carrying seven persons, but one seat was still free since Lily-Lee insisted on sitting in McCoy's lap. She was holding a padd and checking out a list of words associated with this new activity.

"Shuttlepod, shuttlepipes, shuttleless, shuttlecraft, shuttlecock. Wait, shuttlecock? What's that, doc?"

"Hm? Oh, that's got nothing to do with this. That's a badminton ball, goes back and forth in play."

"Shuttlecock, goes back and forth, that'll be easy to remember."

"I bet."

"Shuttlecock."

"Stop saying that."

"Whyyy? It's not a dirty word."

"It is when you say it!"

Kirk looked back over his shoulder at McCoy. The doctor didn't look annoyed at all, in spite of his words. In fact, he was smiling. Lieutenant Latimer and yeoman Mears exchanged glances and looked from the doctor to the captain. Probably they were curious to know the captain's reason to not uphold basic rules concerning shuttle traffic. Well, I haven't seen Bones with such rosy cheeks in a long time, so I'm going to let him bend a few rules.

They descended over the vast sea, which covered the southern third of the planet's surface, and even from the stratosphere they could see pillars of smoke rising in a straight line along the rift. Eventually the Galileo was on an altitude of five meters, propelling itself against the water surface to save on fuel. As planned, the shuttle stayed far away from the rift, gathering data.

Without any warning, everything turned into rubble, cold water, stench and the sound of breaking metal.