In fourteen hours, the Enterprise would arrive at the Tsiolkovsky. The Tsiolkovsky was a science vessel that had been monitoring the collapse of a red supergiant star. After receiving a series of disturbing subspace communications, the Enterprise had been dispatched to rendezvous with the vessel and offer any needed assistance.

They were travelling at Warp 7, but the ship was still a day away.

The senior officers had gathered for their weekly poker night and it seemed everything was going in Data's favour.

"I've got a full house. Your turn, Data. Let's see 'em," Tasha said as she showed her cards.

"Straight flush," Data said as he cocked his head at her.

"Well, aren't you lucky?" she replied with a laugh.

They made eye contact. The corner of his mouth tilted upwards and he held her gaze as he collected his winnings.

It wasn't the first time he'd done that recently, and a part of Tasha wanted to ask why. She narrowed her eyes as she took him in. Data realised he was staring and looked down, breaking eye contact.

"Anyone want to make a bet about what's happened on the Tsiolkovsky?" Riker asked.

"When I was aboard the Potemkin, we had a communicator malfunction that replaced every third word with files from the library," Chief O'Brien said. "Jaysus! That was a mess. Took us three days to sort that one out!"

"At the Academy we had a cadet swap out a fellow cadet's report for Advanced Navigation with text from Lady Chatterley's Lover as a prank," Riker said with a suggestive raise of his eyebrows.

The table laughed.

"Those messages were pretty strange," Geordi commented. "What was the last one? It was, well, steamy. I sincerely hope it is a prank and nothing serious."

"What? You're joking," Tasha exclaimed.

"Lieutenant La Forge is correct. Just before coming here we picked up another communication from the Tsiolkovsky from First Officer Henderson that read 'I need your hands all over my body. I will put you on your knees and give you that sweet relief until your body is sore'," Data stopped suddenly as he realised his comments were perhaps raunchier than the table had been expecting.

Riker snorted. Deanna choked on her drink. And Miles tried to suppress a smirk.

"Sorry, I do tend to babble," Data said as he began to shuffle the deck. "But I find the human desire to engage in sexual activity to the point of exhaustion fascinating."

"Perhaps someday you'll get to experience that for yourself, Mr Data," Commander Riker said as he gave a small, knowing glance to Deanna.

"Anatomically I am fully functional, but as an android I am incapable of experiencing that kind of exhaustion. Theoretically, I can endure as long as desired," Data said seriously.

An awkward silence fell on the group. Tasha hid behind her drink as she felt her face flush. She'd never heard Data be quite so saucy. She found it highly amusing.

"If any other man had said that I'd think he was boasting," Riker winked.

"I am sorry if my comment has caused offense, it was not my intention to come across as ostentatious," Data replied in earnest.

Riker smiled and shook his head.

"Not at all. In fact, I think the next time you meet someone you should lead with that, Pinocchio," Riker stated.

Data looked confused as if he were trying to decipher that Commander's statement.

"Lead with that, Sir?" Data questioned.

"You know…. if you meet someone you're interested in," Riker tried to explain.

"Ah! As in a romantic interest," Data said as he accessed his memory files on human colloquialisms. "Do you think that is wise dating advice? Would women not find that to be overbearing?"

"I dunno. I kind like it when someone gets straight to the point," Tasha said as she looked at her cards.

Data cocked his head very slightly and looked directly at her.

"It is your move, Chief," Data said without breaking eye contact with Tasha.

She couldn't explain it, but there was something in the way he was looking at her that made her feel appreciated.


"And then we got him down to sickbay so Doctor Crusher could examine him," Tasha explained to Captain Picard.

"He wasn't violent?" Picard asked as he glanced over her shoulder to look at Geordi on the medical table.

Tasha shook her head.

"No, Sir. He was very upset. He kept talking about wanting vision without the VISOR," Tasha stated.

"Hmmm," Picard said as he contemplated her statement. "Thank you, Lieutenant."

It had been about ten minutes since Tasha had located Geordi in the observation lounge and taken him to sickbay. Something was terribly wrong. He hadn't been violent, but he certainly wasn't acting like himself.

Why is it so hot? Tasha thought to herself as she ran her hand through her hair.

Shaking off the feeling, she assumed it must be nerves. She didn't like the feeling that something was wrong with Geordi. He was a good friend and it troubled her to know he was experiencing some kind of unexplainable illness.

Tasha returned to the bridge where Commander Riker was currently in the command chair. She took her position at the tactical panel. Data was sitting at science station #2.

"Lieutenant, may I ask how Geordi is?" Data said as he stood up and came up behind her.

Tasha turned to face him.

"Doctor Crusher is checking him out right now," she replied as she looked Data up and down.

This was not lost on the android. He looked down at himself to see if there was something amiss on his uniform. Seeing nothing out of place he looked back at her questioningly.

"Lieutenant Yar?" Data asked as he noticed she was perspiring.

She bit her lip.

Data reached out and placed his hands on her shoulders and Tasha began to feel warm.

Her mind drifted back to his comment at the poker game when he read the latest message from the Tsiolkovsky.

I need your hands all over my body.

He had such long arms. How had she never noticed this before?

She smiled up at him. Data had never told her, but he found her smile captivating.

"Are you alright?" Data questioned.

"Never better," she replied in a voice that did not feel like her own.

She reached out and rested her hand against his chest, fascinated as his artificial breathing caused it to rise and fall with a pattern no different than human respiration.

"Lieutenant Yar to holodeck 4," her combadge pinged suddenly.

He removed his hands from her shoulders, and she tapped her badge to respond.

"Acknowledged," she replied.

Before she stepped away, she took another glance up and down at the Second Officer.

"Bye," she said in a flirty voice before turning and heading to the turbolift.

Data took a step forward and watched her leave.

Before the door to the turbolift closed she noticed Data staring, dumbstruck.


Tasha felt a rush of endorphins.

As she stepped off the lift, she was hit again with another wave of discomfort. There had to be something wrong with the environmental controls.

Stopping for a moment, Tasha leaned against the wall and fanned herself with her hand. It was so uncomfortably hot. She felt like her uniform was suffocating.

She pushed her sleeves up to her elbows and unzipped the front of her jumpsuit a few inches.

The sound of shouting from down the corridor brought her attention back to the task at hand. She made her way toward the noise and found three of her security officers tangling with two opposing teams arguing over the holodeck.

Worf was holding two guys apart from one another. Rainer was attempting to calm down one of the parties and Bailey was tussling with Higgs, one of the guys from the Beta shift engineering team.

Tasha ordered Bailey and Higgs to stop. When they refused, she grabbed Higgs in an effort to try and help detain him.

She hadn't expected Perez from the archaeology team to grab her by the waist and pull her off Higgs. As she registered his hands on her waist she was overcome with a feeling of arousal as her mind drifted back to the thought of a certain Lieutenant Commander's hands as he deftly shuffled the cards at their poker game.

Before she could think any more about it, a second security team arrived and stunned the troublemakers. Tasha ordered that they detain them separately until they could be examined by Doctor Crusher.

She ordered Worf to return to the bridge and asked Bailey to submit the report on the incident.

Tasha herself had been planning to return to the bridge but she thought it may be best to change into something lighter before returning. It was unbearably warm.

She began to make her way to her quarters to change into a short sleeve uniform when a sudden thought occurred to her. Deanna always looked so beautiful in her casual wear. Captain Picard was fairly lenient when it came to allowing the Betazoid fashion on duty.

And she couldn't shake the way Data had been looking at her from her mind. She'd noticed him staring at her and she wondered what sweet things would come from his mouth with a little motivation.


Tasha made her way out of Deanna's quarters and was off on a mission to the ship's stores. Although Deanna had advised her that Betazoid fashion was 'not for you', Tasha was unphased. She would find something in the ship's stores to elicit an emotional response from the Lieutenant Commander.

He was always so unflappable. Tasha wanted to see him a little ruffled.

Could an android be ruffled?

For weeks, Tasha had noticed that - at times - Data seemed to stare at her. Years of security training and watching her back on Turkana had left her with a heightened awareness.

And despite his composed demeanour, he seemed rattled whenever she caught him. He would tilt his head to the side, wearing a look of feigned innocence before averting his eyes.

Making her way down the corridor, Tasha felt alive. There was a saunter in the way she moved that did not go unmissed by science officer Travers.

She'd never admit it aloud, but she liked the attention.

Without hesitation she made a beeline for him and placed a heated kiss on the junior grade Lieutenant.

She probably would have gone farther but a tap on the shoulder broke their kiss.

"What the hell are you doing, Marcus?" His girlfriend said as she took in the sight of the two of them snogging in the corridor.

"My mistake," Tasha said as she poked him on the chest playfully.

"Gina honey, I swear I don't know what that was about," Tasha could hear him say as she stepped onto the turbolift.


When she reached the ship's stores she made her way over to the computer to flip through the options available. She wanted something light and a little flirty.

Do android's experience desire? She thought to herself.

Unable to decide, she had the replicator fashion both a silky blue skirt number and a shorter red piece that she doubted Captain Picard would allow on the bridge.

Holding them up for inspection she was having a hard time choosing. Tasha preferred the red personally, but she knew the blue would make her eyes stand out.

"Ensign, which of these do you prefer?" she asked as she held them up to Ensign Graham.

He blushed furiously and turned his head away to avoid looking at her.

"Um, Sir…I, um, I'm not sure you would want my advice on that," he replied nervously.

"It's a simple question, ensign. Would you prefer I try them on?" She asked.

Graham cleared his throat as he tried to regain his composure.

"The, the blue one," he said quickly in hopes she would leave him in peace.

Tasha contemplated his choice.

"You're sure you don't want to see them to make a more informed decision?" she inquired with more than a hint of suggestion.

"Quite sure, Sir," Graham said as he covered his eyes.

Tasha sighed and made her way back to her quarters.


A part of Tasha knew she should return to the bridge. She had duties to attend to. But another part of her knew she was in no condition to return to duty.

No, she definitely needed a shower first.

She reasoned with herself that if she took a cold shower it may calm her nerves down enough to compose herself and get back to work.

As she wet her hair, she felt some small relief from the heat. At a minimum, she wasn't perspiring anymore. But the feeling of arousal wasn't going away.

She tried to kill the thought in her head. She needed to get back to the bridge.

He's on the bridge. A little voice said in her head as her mind began to imagine what Data's skin would feel like against her own.

Would it feel warm? She knew that he was an anatomical wonder. It would be theoretically possible that his creator would have replicated a human-like touch.

Was he cool to the touch? She considered this possibility and did not dismiss it as unwelcome. Presently, she would welcome any kind of cooling relief from the heat that was surging through her body.

Turning off the shower, she stepped out into her quarters and dried herself off.

She glanced back and forth between the skant uniform folded on her bed and the blue outfit she'd picked up at the ship's stores.

It couldn't hurt to try it on. She told herself.

Examining herself in the mirror she was quite pleased with the results. Picking up a comb, she brushed her wet hair back and applied a little more eye makeup than she typically wore.

"Captain to Security! Come in!" Captain Picard's voice said as it rang out through her quarters.

She had removed her combadge and it was sitting on the built-in shelves that lined the wall of her bedroom.

"Yeah, Captain," she heard Rainer laugh in response.

"Where is my Security Chief? Get me Lieutenant Yar," Picard ordered.

"Keep your britches on," Rainer replied.

Oh, he's gonna pay for that one! Tasha thought. Her security team were good people, if a little brash.

"Captain Picard," she said in a voice that sounded intoxicated.

"Lieutenant, where are you?" Picard asked.

He sounded frustrated. She glanced at the clock on the wall and realised she had been gone for over an hour.

But as she looked back at her mirror and took in her appearance, she couldn't help but feel more confident than she had in a long time.

"I'm in my quarters and um….I'm pretty busy right at the moment, Jean-Luc," she said as she did a spin in the mirror.


She didn't know it, but up on the bridge Data sat bolt upright at the helm and looked back at Captain Picard.

An unpleasant thought crossed his mind, given what they had witnessed so far it was possible Tasha was engaged in an intimate interaction with another crewmember.

Although he found himself excited by the sound of her voice, he felt the unfamiliar sensation of concern that she might be involved with someone else.

Was this jealousy? He thought to himself.

He understood they were not in any sort of relationship, but he couldn't push the idea of being with her from his mind. Since he had come to know her, he found her to be intriguing.

He did not want to lose the opportunity to pursue a relationship to someone else.

"Alright Lieutenant, you just stay right there," Picard said.


Tasha's shoulders slumped.

Picard was probably on his way to tell her off for dereliction of duty.

She began to unfasten the sleeves of her new outfit when she stopped as her combadge pinged again.

"Data go to Lieutenant Yar and take her down to sickbay," Picard said.

Tasha froze. Suddenly, she felt incredibly nervous.

Data was coming to her quarters.

Lieutenant Commander Data was on his way to her quarters.

The Lieutenant Commander Data that could be incredibly cute when he cocked his head to the side to process a phrase he didn't understand.

The same Data that she had seen command the Enterprise at times with an air of authority that she had to admit was alluring.

The Data that had a taut arse and long arms that she'd seen rip doors in half and gently pluck the strings of a violin.

She heard the door to her quarters slide open and couldn't help but giggle.

"Lieutenant Yar?" Data called out as he stepped into the dimly lit room.

He was really here. She could feel her heartbeat pick up at the sound of his voice.

"Here, Data," she said as she opened the door to her bedroom.

He stopped in his tracks as he took in the sight of her.

She's alone. He thought to himself with relief.

"You wanted me?" she said suggestively.

His eyebrows jumped briefly before he quickly composed himself.

Data tried to speak but she started walking toward him slowly. He found that in the moment, he had lost the ability to reply.

He could see the curve of her breasts peeking out from underneath the dark blue shirt that criss-crossed over her chest and was pulled up behind her neck.

"Captain Picard ordered me to escort you to sickbay, Lieutenant," he said, finally regaining his power of speech.

She could see the desire in his face. What she couldn't see was that his positronic brain was shutting down parts of his processing function in order to focus his attention on remaining professional.

It was a strange sensation. Something in the way she moved was causing his mind to begin theorising different scenarios in which he would take great pleasure in touching her.

"Did he say when?" Tasha replied coolly as she stopped inches away from his face.

There was something in her demeanour that Data couldn't quite place. It was animalistic, as if she were a predator about to devour him where he stood.

Data's modesty programme was attempting to force him to take a step back to regain some sense of decorum, but he had no desire to do so. In that moment, he was captivated.

"I'm sure he meant now," Data replied. "So, you should…get into uniform."

Data regretted his choice of words. The thought of her removing her clothes, even for the purpose of changing into her uniform, was almost more than he could handle. His eyes began to dilate as he suppressed his sexual programme from launching.

"But I got out of my uniform for you Data," she said softly.

His neural net was racing as he tried to regain control of his senses. Taking note of the tone of her voice and the closeness of her body, he was fighting a losing battle against his desire to reach out and touch her.

Data was unsure how to respond as he contemplated the repercussions of doing so.

She was speaking but it was as if it was a distorted subspace communication. Sound was travelling to his audio sensors but he wasn't processing it.

Now, he could only process that his olfactory sensors had picked up on a distinct, familiar scent.

She was aroused.

And she had told him these overtures were specially for him.

He felt himself speak in response, but it was automated. He found his Starfleet training was in conflict with his sexual programming. He knew the longer he stood there, the harder it would be to stop himself.

"What I want now is gentleness and joy and love," she said in a voice so foreign from the tough as nails Security Officer that she was on the bridge.

Data's Adams apple jumped in his throat. He knew he could give her all that and more.

Was this an invitation to do so? He pondered.

He had never told her before, but he felt there was something special about her. The way she laughed was as pleasant as the classical music he enjoyed.

He found her to be bright and their conversation was mentally stimulating. The shade of her eyes was more appealing to him than any other colour he had seen. And although he had never done so, he often thought about what it might feel like to kiss her.

"From you, Data. You are fully functional, aren't you?" she asked as she rubbed his shoulders and dropped her eyes to take in the lean, sculpted muscles of his broad chest.

It was over the moment she touched him. His sexual programming kicked in and he began to feel his synthetic biofluid rush south.

"Of course, but-" it was one final weak attempt to remain professional.

"How fully?" she demanded as she gripped his shoulders.

His head screamed 'I'd love to demonstrate' but his modesty programming gave a less crude answer.

"In every way of course," he replied.

He decided to take a risk.

"I am programmed in multiple techniques," Data added, testing Commander Riker's advice to 'lead with that.'

Tasha smiled as she snaked a hand down between them and rubbed the erection that was tight in his jumpsuit.

Data hadn't lied. He was fully functional, indeed.

Starfleet officers often complained about how tight their uniforms were. But in this instance, Tasha was grateful that little was left to the imagination.

"A broad variety of pleasuring," he added as he looked down at the sight of her hand rubbing his cock through the black fabric.

Tasha's smile grew wide and her eyes lit up.

There was something about the way he looked at her that sent a wave of heat through her body.

"You jewel, that's exactly what I hoped for," she replied with glee.

She grabbed his hand and backed toward her bedroom.