‘Tis Charity
to Show
Chapter III
Part 1
Rand felt
herself materialize onto the desert planet surface of Tijus. She gave her body time to get its
bearings, for her feet to feel more secure to the ground and her vision to stop
shifting. When she was finally
grounded and centered, she, along with the rest of the landing party, started
to take in their surroundings.
The
archeological site was like a ghost town, the wind making loud hollow groans as
it coiled its way through the abandoned structures, like a serpent. In the middle of this site was a hole
dug wide and deep, surrounded by scaffolding and digging tools of various types
and sizes, that swayed on the hooks of their tool stands. Unearthed ancient artifacts were placed
neatly in a rectangular box, each item separated by compartments while padds,
pens, and flashlights lied next to these boxes. The desert sand had accumulated around these tools and
findings, almost covering them from sight. The buildings where the archeologists had resided surrounded
the spot, the one-story rectangular structures stretching vertically behind
them, making narrow alleys in between, that acted as tunnels for the howling
winds.
Rand noticed
how the planet itself was a dune of burnt-orange lying underneath contorted,
sloping boulders of a rich deep chocolate hue, placed in various distances from
one another, like a vast, endless zen garden. All this was blanketed by a solid, cloudless turquoise sky
with a blood orange sun hovering over the precipice of the horizon, getting
ready to set. Purple configurations, like ribbons, flowed and twisted against
the sky, radiating from the flaming ball of the sun in abstract-expressionist
patterns. Rand soaked in the
desolate beauty around her, her attention away from the site and the other
members of the landing party. She
looked down at the burnt-orange ground underneath her feet, and noticed that
the pant legs of her jumpsuit were now the same exact color of the desert
sand. When she looked up from
where she stood, she saw that the rest of the landing party was clad in the
same burnt-orange shade. The
terrain suits were designed to function in many different climates. Besides camouflage, these outfits were
able to regulate the temperature of the fabric so that the wearer would be able
to survive in more extreme climates, like a desert, or an arctic tundra.
The landing
party was gathering around Spock, so Rand pulled herself away from her
communion with the alien landscape and walked over to join the other crewmen,
who were posing questions about their mission to Mr. Spock.
“Do you
think that these archeologists were kidnapped by beings hostile to the
Federation?” asked Scotty, placing his hands on his hips and squinting his
eyes, looking like an old movie sleuth.
Spock looked
pensive as he brought his hand up to his chin and cupped it with his long,
elegant fingers.
“If that is
what has happened, then we will indeed find the evidence that tells us so,” he
said simply.
“Do you
suppose that circumstances arose that gave them no other choice but to leave,
like a plague or something?” asked
Riley.
“No evidence
of such has been picked up by any of the planet-wide scanning searches,”
said Spock
with finality.
Rand looked
ahead of her and could see all the needed equipment standing obediently by, a
few feet in front of the landing party, just as Khobran had assured they would
be.
Khobran.
Rand felt a
pang in her chest as she visualized his face, his hurt face. She hoped that their time away from one
another would heal the emotional wounds that she had inflicted upon him.
Damn it.
“Is that a
greenhouse?”
The question
came from Nurse Rose, her low horsey voice cutting through Rand’s
thoughts. Rand turned to where
Rose was pointing and, sure enough, spotted a large greenhouse that stood a few
feet above the other buildings, its prism glass glinting with the deep red of
the evening sun.
“Probably
where the archeologists cultivated much of their food supply. They were here for the long term,” said
Spock.
“Do you
think there will be clues inside as to what might have happened to them?” asked Dr. Begay.
“It’s worth
a look, Doctor,” said Spock.
The landing
party started towards the greenhouse.
There was an eerie quiet surrounding them as they gained ground to the
asymmetrical building, its girth widening menacingly the closer they got to
it. Rand was softly on edge,
cautious and watchful, turning her head sideways and behind her, grateful that
she was not the last in the group as Riley and Rose were close in back of her.
They reached
the greenhouse and stood in front of it.
There was no initiative to enter the greenhouse by anyone in the landing
party, but one by one, they began to take a look around the surrounding area,
being mindful not to stray too far from the group. Rand walked up to the building, unable too see clearly
because of the play of light on the glass, flickering back and forth slowly,
with ease. She leaned her forehead
onto the window and cupped her hands over the sides of her eyes.
Rows of
plant life of various colors, sizes and types filled up her view with vigorous,
unbruised vitality.
“At least
the greenhouse is working. Real
convenient for us. The produce we
brought with us is packed in ice,” she thought.
Having grown
up on organic food, the thought of eating fresh produce sang of absolute heaven
for Rand. The fruits and
vegetables on the Enterprise were usually packed in sub stasis for so long that
what resulted in taste was a freezer-burn residue. Yuch. But now
she was overjoyed as she spotted corn and carrots over to the right in the
corner of the greenhouse.
The produce
was swimming in a rich amber light from the setting sun, it’s color mixing
nicely with the greens, yellows, oranges, reds, blues, purple; all the hues
represented by the comely bounty in this place. It all had a very soothing affect on Rand, putting her
earlier prickliness to rest, ebbing away into a seductive calm.
That
seductive calm seemed to do something to the leaves, stems, and roots of the
plant life in the greenhouse. The
characteristics of colors changed in a blink of an eye, becoming more intense
while the membranes of the plants turned more pliant in texture.
Rand spotted
a flutter of movement among the foliage, and assumed, at first, that it came
from a small animal.
“Maybe a
lizard snuck in through a crack in the building,” Rand thought.
But then the
fluttering started to ripple through the plants and produce, fingering its way
outward, like waves from a pebble that was tossed in a quiet pond. In her confusion, Rand tried to find
out where the movement was coming from, but then, something happened. The foliage began to widen, stretching
outward, reaching forward, magnifying their presence against Rand’s view. The tips and veins of the leaves,
stalks and stems started to convolute out of shape, bending and wriggling into
amorphous clumps which grew limbs, heads and torsos, muscles writhing
underneath what now appeared to be flesh.
Mouths opened grotesquely, male members sprang up, necks pulled forward,
and arms reached out while waists, ankles and buttocks carved themselves into
existence.
At first, Rand couldn’t quite make out
what she was seeing, then after she was able to see what was happening in front
of her eyes, she couldn’t believe it!
The plant
life, the vegetables, the fruits, the flora, were replaced by doll-sized
humanoid forms all engaged in a variety of sexual positions. Clusters of hairless couples,
threesomes, sometimes orgies, went at it from where they were. Some bucked and pushed in frenetic and
dizzying energy, others caressed and explored one another in gentle, hesitant
lovemaking. They were in the same
colors as the plant life and produce--red, purple, yellow, orange, pink, blue and
green.
Rand pressed herself against the glass,
unable to tear her eyes away from the action that unfolded in front of her, her
breathing growing more rapid as it fogged the window near her mouth, her hands
flattening, adhered to the plate of glass of the greenhouse. Her attention turned to the stalks of
corn, the peaks of kernels gone, replaced by large yellow penises bursting out
of green sheaves. The tomatoes in
the corner were now rounded red plump breasts, the green stems now hardened,
puckered nipples, offered freely and openly. Lettuce morphed into light green vaginal folds pulsating out
of the rich soil, and the pumpkins were now buttocks of many different sizes
and shapes also sticking out of the soil, effectively mooning Rand.
Of all the
copulating humanoids in front of her, Rand was drawn to one particular green
couple. The young woman was
sprawled on her back, lying on the shelf where many of the plants had been, her
lithe body undulating and squirming underneath her lover in the throws of
orgasm. Her long, graceful, toned
legs were spread wide in accommodation as her beautiful face was twisted in
wanting heat. Her breasts, though
not large, were full, firm, buoyant and round. They bounced along to the rhythm of the woman gliding back
and forth, pushing and pulling on her lover as she shook her head
frantically.
But what
really drew Rand to this woman was that the face and body was her own.
That
diminutive creature was her!
The woman’s eyes were shut tight while
her hands gripped her lover’s pumping hips. The man’s pace quickened as his own face contorted in ecstasy.
The male
figure was powerful, chiseled in lean muscle. His broad shoulders flexed, his head and neck raised, his
body shining in sweat.
He turned
his face over in Rand’s direction and looked straight at her.
It was Khobran’s face.
He looked
straight into Rand’s transfixed eyes, his body shuttering in release, his mouth
wide. After his came inside his
lover, he jutted out his tongue and flicked it in rapid motion, like a reptile.
Rand reflexively pushed herself away
from the glass and gripped her stomach, her eyes still wide like a frightened
doe under the double-barrel of a rifle.
She hastily looked both ways to see and wondered if the other crew
members had witnessed what she had, but she was too embarrassed to dare ask if
they had witnessed it. Her hands
creeped to her neck and she took a few steps back, then she felt something as
she looked down between her wobbly legs.
There was
dampness between her folds, though it was just a whisper.
“Shit,” Rand
thought while the blood rose to her cheeks, flushing her face with redness and
warmth.
“Why on
Earth would they dump all those boxes of unused food in there like that? All the heat from the greenhouse will
make them spoil! What a
waste!” exclaimed Nurse Rose
indignantly, her voice muffled by the fact that she was just about pressing her
nose and mouth against the greenhouse window.
“What the
hell are you talking about? What
food? I see a lot of gym
equipment, though. It’s like the
people just decided to dump it all in there! Why would they put gym equipment in a freakin’ greenhouse,
for Christ’s sake?” asked Riley.
“No, you’re
both wrong. It’s discarded medical
waste-bloodied sutures, old needles, stuff like that. Discarding that stuff where you keep your produce?” said Dr. Begay, shaking his head in
amazement.
Rand looked
at the three of them, who were peering into the greenhouse just like she had
been, and was stunned.
“Why are we
all seeing different things in that greenhouse?!” she thought.
“Interesting.”
Rand turned
to see Spock and Scotty standing close behind the rest of the group.
“Three
people seeing different things, even though they are looking inside the same
place. Fascinating.”
Rand, at
least, could be relieved, because she’d have to hide somewhere if everyone saw
what she saw!
“Rand, can
you tell us what you saw?” Scotty
suddenly asked out of the blue, though earnestly.
Rand’s eyes
grew wide again, and she was once more aware of the wetness between her legs.
“I…saw…plants
turning…into…large, erect, trees,”
Rand stammered.
There. That
should pass as the truth.
Scotty and
Spock looked at each other.
“Did you
look inside the greenhouse?” Scotty
asked Spock.
“No.”
“Neither did
I. Guess we’ll have to look inside
to see what’s in there after all.”
“Yes, I
would agree with that, Mr. Scott.”
Everyone
stepped aside for the two men when they walked purposefully to the greenhouse
door. They stepped inside and
looked around, their faces showing no reaction at all. After a short while, Rand, Riley, Rose,
and Dr. Begay followed suite and stepped inside. Rand and the others spun around, clearly startled at what
they were seeing, exclamations of confusion tumbling out of their lips in quick
discordant succession while they took in everything around them. They looked up, and then looked down on
the floor.
On the floor
of the greenhouse were discarded cardboard boxes strewn around in disarray,
empty flowering pots broken in bits and halves, dried pale tan and grey soil
fallen underneath them. The
plants, the produce, the vegetation which had been colorful and alive to Rand’s
eyes only moments ago, hung crisp and limp from shelves, in cracked rows of
dirt, and suspended containers.
Fruits and vegetables lay rotted, the skins peeling and cracking away
from the sun-scorched, juiceless meat.
The atmosphere was not moist and warm, but cool and arid like the
evening desert outside.
Rand knelt
down and picked up a dry, lifeless plant the size of an African violet. She held it up in one hand and with the
other hand closed her fingers around the leaves, crumbling them easily like
ancient parchment. Tossing the
plant back on the ground, she wiped her hands on her pant legs and got back on
her feet.
Rand could
feel that earlier raw, spooked feeling making a comeback.
