'Tis Charity to Show Chapter IV Part 2

‘Tis Charity to Show

Chapter IV

Part 2

The intensity of the turquoise sky made it appear touchable with its even, unwavering shade. The blazing white sun that hovered high up seemed almost embedded against the heavens.  The sheer magnificence of the horizon made it very difficult for Rand to tear her attention away from it and back to the reason why she was outside in the first place. 

The landing party had been split into three pairs, and Rand was paired with Mr. Spock.  The two of them were conducting their part of the search at the outermost tip of the site on the west side, while the others searched on the outermost tip of the east and the south.  The idea was to work from the outer rim of the grounds and eventually conclude the search at the very center of the site, where the excavations had taken place.  Because of the piecemeal method being used, the search would take a few days to be conducted, giving the landing party plenty of time for a more thorough investigation. 

Spock, with his tricorder in hand, walked around the area gingerly while watching the readings on the monitor screen.  Nothing.  Rand wasn’t having much luck herself, as the pencil-thin rod that rotated, stretched, dipped, and retreated from behind her monitor failed to show anything on her screen.  No body heat, not even readings of corporal remains were picked up.

Rand turned and started to ask Spock a question, but hesitated, and then decided not to pursue it.  Her hesitation didn’t quite make sense to her, but she couldn’t help it.  It was a reflex, like when the patient’s leg kicks up after their doctor hit their knee with a patella hammer.

It sat in the middle of her shoulder blades, raw, blunt and clammy, ever since she’d been alone on this search with Spock.  It spoke of an unease Rand had with him, his presence, and she couldn’t pinpoint exactly why she had this feeling.  All she knew was that she wished she’d been paired with someone else.  Hell, she’d even clench her teeth and partner with Rose if she had to!

Partner with Rose.  Wow.  It must be bad if she’d rather be with Rose.

Well, actually, she’d rather be with Khobran, if she really had a choice in the matter. 

Living on a starship could be downright scary at times, much less beaming down on a strange alien planet.  Rand recalled many times since they’d been together, during uncertain instances that the Enterprise had faced, how Khobran was there to comfort her, make her feel safe with a firm squeeze on the shoulder, pulling her close and holding her, brushing her bangs aside so that he could kiss her forehead.

“Yeoman Rand!”

Rand was jarred out of her thoughts by Mr. Spock, whose trumpeting reprimand served as a bucket of ice water to the warmth of her memories.  With goosebumps covering much of her skin, Rand had almost forgotten that she was under the brow beating rays of a mid-morning desert sun.

“It is absolutely imperative that you are fully alert and reliable during this search!  I cannot be the only one here who is doing the work!”  Spock’s voice was sharp, condescending.

Rand flinched at the harshness of the first officer’s tone.  It seemed so unnecessary and over-the-top, especially considering the length of time spent and the lack of progress made on this search.  Damn it, she was working!  We’ve found nothing, Oh Mighty Mr. Spock!  Get over yourself!

“I’m on the task at hand, sir,” said Rand with a defensive weariness, fully aware of the fact that the word ‘sorry’ didn’t enter into her response. 

“The fuck’s your problem?” she thought while visions of her laser gun searing off the tips of Spock’s ears entertained her.

Well, a yeoman could dream, right?

Rand heard the communicator on Spock’s belt go off, and she was relieved.  At least, for this short little window of time, his attention wouldn’t be on her.  Spock reached for his communicator and flipped it open.

“Spock here.”

“Sc-Scott h-here.  Mmuu-me and R-Riley h-haven’t p-picked up on aneee-any life at all, s-sir.  B-But Riley stummmbled upon a p-packet of re-recording wafers offff logs labeled b-by a Duh-Doctor Adruh-Adrienne Ellisssss.  Maaee b-bee they’d g-give usss a-cluh-clue to w-what h-happened to the-them, ssir.”

While Spock listened he glanced over at Rand, who promptly turned away.  She didn’t like him looking at her with those piercing eyes of his. 

Or were they dead eyes? 

“This is a positive turn for us, Mr. Scott, considering that no life has been picked up by any of us thus far.  I will contact Dr. Begay.  We will be heading in now.  You can give Yeoman Rand the tapes for her inspection.  Spock out.”

“Wow.  I can’t understand Scotty’s stuttering.  It seems to be getting worse,” Rand thought.

She wondered if she was the only one who noticed, but then again, she did turn away from Spock, so she was not able to see how he reacted to Scotty’s new speech impediment. 

“We are returning to the camp.  Mr. Riley will present you with these tapes he has found.  You are to report on anything you believe may help us on this mission.”

“Yes, sir,” said Rand with her back to Spock.

Thank God, it’s over!

As Rand started to collect her gear, she swooned suddenly.  It was as if she was spinning around without actually moving from where she stood.

“Yeoman Rand,” yelled Spock, running to her side and hoisting her up by her elbow.

“Are you all right?!”

Rand took a deep breath and gave herself time to steady her feet.  She pressed her free hand onto her temple.

“Whoa!”

“Yeoman?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” she said, clearly shaken.

Rand looked up at the wide-expanse of sky where the white-hot sun loomed above the desert.  While it was true that the sun’s temperatures were fierce at around this time, the visor and gargles she was wearing should have been protection enough from the rays’ heat.  She didn’t understand what was going on.  Was she sick?                     

“Maybe the sun is getting to me.  We’ve been out here for awhile,” she thought.

Maybe.

“I don’t understand.  Your headgear should be able to provide adequate protection from the heat.  This is most unusual.  Perhaps you should see Dr. Begay when we return to the camp…”

“No, Mr. Spock. I’m fine,” Rand assured him with more firmness in her voice.

“Are you quite sure, Yeoman?”

OH, MY GOD! Is this guy deaf, or what?! 

She could feel Spock’s grip on her elbow get tighter.  Was he even aware that he was beginning to hurt her?

Rand twisted her elbow away from his hold.  She wanted desperately to get away from him.

“Yes!  I’m fine!” She was surprised by how abrupt and loud her own voice had become.

There was a thick silence that permeated the air while she hurriedly gathered her gear.  She could feel Spock’s eyes on her while he stood over her.

“Very well,” he said with a quiet edge.  “We shall return to the camp and have a conference on our findings.”

Rand could hear Spock’s footsteps recede as she picked up her backpack and flung it over her shoulder.  When her arms were safely secured in the straps, she started heading back, walking  as fast as she was able, leaving Spock behind.  The sooner she was surrounded by the rest of the landing party, the better she’d feel.

  

   

'Tis Charity to Show Chapter IV Part 1

‘Tis Charity to Show

Chapter IV

Part 1

The dining area was a long, gray, rectangular room, empty of any furnishings except for a singular, long, rickety dining table situated right in the middle of it.  Chairs had to be carried in from the kitchen area if one wanted to sit down for breakfast, unless one didn’t mind standing throughout the whole meal. 

As Scotty, Spock, and Riley brought chairs over and set them around the table, Rand was busy in the kitchen, taking out packets of food and placing them on the trays, which were lined up along the counter.  Dr. Begay and Nurse Rose placed napkins, condiments, and utensils alongside the packets and waited while Rand poured steaming cups of coffee from the newly working pot into rinsed cups. 

While she worked, Rand smiled fondly to herself as she thought just how Khobran would feel if he saw her working in the kitchen like this.  What was it he had said to her on that day, when she was lying in sickbay being treated for a head injury:

“The Captain could get his own damn coffee…”

She chuckled to herself, remembering him sitting there by her bedside, his charming awkwardness melting away as the two of them began the journey towards getting to know one another.

But then, the fondness was replaced by an ache, so she had to force herself out of her head and back onto the meals she was helping to prepare.

“Busy yourself, Janice,” she reprimanded herself.  “After all, there’s coffee to be served and packets of dry, tasteless astronaut food to be handed out.”

After the last of the meals were served, Rand poured the rest of the coffee from the pot into the carafe and carried it to the dining area, placed it on the breakfast table, and sat down next to Riley where her meal was already waiting for her.

“Oh, yumbo,” she exclaimed rubbing her hands in jest.  “Maybe I can whiten my teeth with this stuff, it’s so hard.”

Riley turned from the conversation he was having with Scotty and laughed.

“Hey, at least it doesn’t taste like toothpaste,” he chimed in.

“No, it just won’t taste like anything,” Rand said.

Riley sat forward with his elbows propped on the table and looked at Rand.

“I noticed that you brought your yoga mat along with you.”

“Damn straight!  I don’t go anywhere without my yoga mat, or my yoga routine,” she said with a bright smile.  “Name a position, I never leave home without it.”

A particular pose appeared in her head, the cow pose, which consisted of one being on their hands and knees and then curling their chest and butt up towards the ceiling on the inhale.  Then, another image flashed in her brain of herself in this same position, but naked, with Khobran nailing her vigorously from behind in an erotic dance of cries and sweaty bodies.

“Wuh-watch eh-it, la-lassie!  Yoo- your c-coffee!”  exclaimed Scotty.

“What? Oh, shit!”  Rand was able to snap out of her dreaming and lift up the carafe before the coffee overflowed in her cup. 

“Jeez, thanks Scotty!  Guess I was off somewhere else!”

No kidding.

“I-tuh it hu-hu-happens,” Scotty said with a smile and shrug of his shoulders.

Wait a minute.  What’s with Scotty? 

Is he stuttering?

Rand looked at Riley, who was sitting right next to her, to try to gage his reaction, since he was close enough to hear Scotty, but Riley didn’t seem to notice.

Rand shrugged her own shoulders.  “Maybe I’m just hearing things,” she thought as she put down the carafe and started to tear open her packet of freeze-dried food. 

She looked at the brown and yellow chips, wafers and cubes that tumbled out of the white container.  Before she became an astronaut, Rand had always looked forward to a fine meal at home, or in one of the many chic eateries that lined the main streets of Montclair.  But ever since joining the Academy and entering Starfleet, she’s had to struggle through freezer-burned entrees on the Enterprise and barely edible concoction during on- planet missions, that either came crunchy, dry and rattling in a box, or as a paste to be squeezed out in a tube.

Rand shook her head, utterly grossed out.  She’d have to force this stuff down with her coffee.  Rand reached for her cup, and when she looked up, she noticed Riley with his crossed arms propped up onto the table, his head cocked to the side, looking at her.

“You know, speaking of yoga mats, I can remember back in the Academy this real asshole of a phys. Ed instructor named Russo,” he recalled with a snort. 

“He didn’t like me, and he knew I didn’t like him!  Gave me a real hard time!  So hard that he fucked me over by giving me a C for the class, just because I tripped during one of his famous obstacle courses!”

“Sounds like you’re still pretty angry at him,” said Dr. Begay, who was sitting across from him at the table.

“Oh you have no idea!  He messed up my GPA!  I can’t even begin to tell you the amount of revenge fantasies I’ve had for that jerk! One of them was smacking him over the head with a piece of his goddamn gym equipment!  He used to guard that junk like they were his little babies or something,” he said with disgust.

Everyone at the table laughed good-naturedly.  All except for Spock, who sat silently at the head of the table, eating his meal and drinking his water, oblivious to the mirth around him.  Rand had noticed this and simply couldn’t understand how Spock could ignore Nurse Rose, who laughed the loudest of everyone at the table, with her irritating gasps and snorts, her mouth revealing the partially chewed food in her mouth.

After she recovered, Rose turned to Dr. Begay’s plate of food and then tapped him on the shoulder.

“Do you want that?”

Dr. Begay gave Rose a look.  “Ah, yeah.  We literally just sat down for breakfast, Hyacinth.”

Rand couldn’t believe that one, and rolled her eyes in response to the nurse’s ill manners.   

  

   

'Tis Charity to Show Chapter III Part 3: Warning for sexual content

‘Tis Charity to Show

Chapter III

Part 3

It was in the middle of the night, and the light of the two moons streamed their way through the window blinds in schemes of blazing white lines, giving the colorless spartan bedroom a film noir atmosphere.  Rand lied in her inflated bed, staring up at the ceiling, unable to sleep.  She’d been restless all night, tossing and turning in bed, getting up to adjust and re-adjust the blinds, plump up or smooth down her pillow. 

It was a profound sadness that was keeping her awake, and it didn’t matter how many times she had tried to alter her surroundings, she couldn’t shake the sadness that held her in it’s tight-fisted grip.

Khobran.

In the past, whenever she thought about her lover, Rand was always filled with warmth, joy, belonging.  Now, at this moment, lying in the semi-darkness, they brought her pain.  It was a pain that sat like a sullen weight on her chest, making her almost hyperventilate.  Images of Khobran, his accusing, hurt face, of him storming out of her quarters on the Enterprise, and  finally of his yearning face in the transporter room, closed in on her.  If she only had a chance to talk to him, to explain herself, to assure him, to tell him he was being unfair, stubborn…to stand on her head and juggle for him!  God!  How many times was she going to go over this shit?!  Over and over she went over and over and over and over…FUCK IT!

Rand threw the covers over her head.  She was going to sleep if it killed her!  God knows Khobran was probably sleeping like a baby back on the ship!  Or was he.

Was he?

Rand saw visions of Khobran’s taunt, emerald green skin, his muscular naked flanks appearing to her under the covers, the material of the blanket acting like some kind of movie screen for Khobran to present himself to her.  Rand’s breathing slowed, and she was lulled into an odd state of both serenity and passion while her lover’s beauty engulfed her.  The warmth that she had always associated with Khobran returned to her in full force, sweeping up from her toes to the top of her head like a silent rip tide.  She could see her hands running over the firm, cut sinews of his powerful thighs, his hard buttocks, shoulders, neck, and jaw line. 

Oh, yes.

God, yes!

His skin was so smooth, so perfect.  Rand could see her fingers running up Khobran’s chin, feeling the warmth of his breath on them as she traced his full lips.  She wanted him, craved him.  Her body grew hot, so hot that she had to kick the covers away for relief, not that she got any.  Not that she wanted any. 

Rand’s body was piping hot, burning, as she squirmed against the mattress, giggling and humming.  The wetness between her legs returned, teasing her.  Her breasts became engorged, her nipples sensitive.  She removed her nightshirt, amazed and amused at how her hard nipples resembled pink coins.  She felt her clit harden and tingle as she parted her legs so wide she felt her vaginal lips part.

Rand squeezed her firm breasts together with her upper arms, feeling their round firmness pressing together in a unified, tantalizing sensation.  She ran the middle finger of her left hand over her sensitive bud, rubbing it vigorously while she inserted the middle finger of her right hand into her tight slit, pulling and pushing it in and out in slick moistness.  Rand drew in her breath and shut her eyes while her passage tightened around her finger and her clit become raw from her manipulations.  She choked out a little sound and pumped her slender hips, causing her sweaty ass to raise off the mattress. 

Rand became addicted to this delicious feeling and worked on herself furiously, gyrating her hips and grinding her tight little rump into the mattress now, her breath ragged as she whispered Khobran again and again in high-pitched uneven cries.  Khobran! Khobran! Oh, my God! Ooooh!  She arched her back as she came in a long shutter, her inhalation sucking into her body in jolts.  After the tide subsided, Rand flopped onto the mattress in a thud, letting out a lengthy, rapid breath, like a deflating balloon.

Rand languished in her bed, her arms flung up over her head and her legs still wide open, like a randy rag doll.  She ran her hands through her long loose hair and took a deep breath, regaling in the afterglow from her thrashing with her phantom lover.  Her eyelids grew heavy, and she was finally drifting off to sleep. 

Rand was breathing softly, and the room held the quiet that was unique to the middle of the night, and she was at peace. 

“Khobran,” she whispered.

Rand stretched out her beautiful, slender upper body like a limber feline and yarned when a little pattering tingled on either side of her inner thighs, and traveled to the very bottom tip of her vagina, where the pattering mutated into an ice cold, wet, abrasive pressing that passed up the length of her vaginal lips, her folds, her tender clit.

Rand was wrenched out of her lulling and bolted upright, her spine in a knot, her eyes pressed downward and her mouth drawn back to expose gritted teeth.  She scrambled in fear and panic towards the wall at the head of the bed, her arms and legs flying and jerking about in emotional chaos and dread.  Grabbing the covers and yanking them up her naked body, Rand pressed herself against the wall and huddled, quivering.  She could feel her body hairs raise and prickle on every inch of her skin.  She turned her head in different directions, searching, looking for the thing that molested her.  She was alone, the corners of her room bare and shadowy.

 There was no one, nothing there.

No one but her.

It took Rand at least two hours to fall back to sleep.