'Tis Charity to Show Chapter III Part 2

Charity to Show

Chapter III

Part 2

The landing party was meeting in a room that was situated in the very middle of the main building where the archeologists had lived.  It was a large square room filled with a motley collection of portable furniture; chairs, tables, shelves and crates placed haphazardly around the area, some of the pieces either lying on their sides or overturned.  It was as if the archeologists, in their haste, had toppled over furniture while escaping from some unknown terror. 

The color of the room was a dingy grayish-brown, quite a stark contrast to the beauty of

 the planet itself.  It gave off an atmosphere of utilitarianism; work, schedules to be met, storage to keep track of.  While there were games on the shelves like Chess, cards, and Mahjong, there was no sense of play, fun, or comaraderie in these interiors.  Doorless rectangular passageways on either side of the room lead to long dark halls to other rooms in the building. 

The landing party busied itself with straightening out the furniture and picking up pieces of games that have strayed out of their boxes on the shelves.  When Scotty had entered the room, everyone else stopped what they were doing and gathered together around him and Spock. 

“Well, now you have central heating on, but it’s gonna take a wee bit of time before the place even begins to warm up.  And you’ll be glad to know that the portable water tanks are filled with enough water to last us awhile.  Couple that with the extra water we brought from the ship, we’re good to go,” said Scotty, holding a wrench in his hand.

“Thank you, Mr. Scott.  Hopefully, the heating process will not take too much time,” said Spock.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I sure could use a cup of joe just about now,” said Riley, vigorously rubbing his hands. 

Rand, who was standing next to Riley, smiled and turned to him.

“I think that can be arranged,” she chirped.

Rand turned and walked out the back door, which led to a lengthy, half-lit hallway.  Turning a corner, Rand spotted the kitchen and hurried towards it. 

“Can’t make them all wait,” she thought as she trotted towards the bright light of the kitchen, which emanated the corridor. 

The kitchen was a white, low-ceiling, stretch of interior with a long counter in front of a serving window.  Right beneath this window stood a coffee pot, one that had obviously belonged to the archeologists, as the coffee pot from the Enterprise was still sitting unpacked in one of their crates.

“All the more convenient,” she said aloud to herself as she whisked herself behind the counter, took the coffee pot, and went behind the serving window to the narrow cooking area with its stove, oven, cooking and eating utensils and cabinets. 

Rand went over to a cabinet, which was right over the other side of the serving window, and reached up, opened it, spotted a tin of coffee right on the bottom shelf, and grabbed it.

“Good, plenty still in here,” she said to herself after opening up the lid and peeking inside the tin. 

Rand removed the filter from the coffee pot and opened it, rinsed it out in the sink right below the cabinet, filled it with coffee grinds, replaced the filter lid, and put it aside as she placed the coffee pot under the one-notch faucet, allowing cold water to shoot into the pot.  When the pot was filled up she placed the filter back in it and closed the top.  Putting the pot down on the ledge of the serving window, she pulled out her phaser from its holster and set it to stun, aimed it, and fired.

The coffee pot glowed a bright orange-yellow under the phaser fire.  Rand could smell the rich aroma of coffee emanating from the stainless steel pot.  When she was satisfied, she released her thumb, ceasing fire.

While Rand waited for the pot to cool down, she replaced her phaser in her holster, reached for a tray, a carafe, cups, saucers, spoons and rinsed them, reached for small packets of condiments and carried all of these items over to the front counter to set them up. 

Rand went back over to the server window to check on the pot.  It had cooled down, as the glow from the laser had faded.  She promptly took the handle and picked up the pot, carrying it over to the tray, flipped open the carafe top and poured the coffee into it. 

After setting the empty coffee pot back onto the hot plate, Rand gripped the sides of the tray and its contents and carefully picked them all up, carrying everything out the kitchen and into the hall, heading back to the meeting room where everyone else sat in the cold brought about by the desert evening.

“Oh my God, please tell me I’m not seeing things!” exclaimed Riley with a huge joyful smile on his face when he turned to see Rand enter the meeting room with the big tray of coffee, cups and saucers, which she placed gingerly on one of the tables in the room.

The landing party eagerly gathered around the tray, exclamations of relief from the cold filling the room as Rand poured each person a cup of coffee from the carafe and handed one to each of the crewmembers.

“Thank you, Janice!” You’re an angel!” said Dr. Begay, taking the cup of hot coffee and cradling it reverently between the palms of his hands and inhaling the nutty, glorious aroma. 

“You’re very welcome, Mathias,” said Rand.

“Goodness, Lassie!  Hot coffee!  How in God’s name did you finagle this without any power around here yet?” asked Scotty, eagerly taking the cup of coffee offered to him, like an excited child.

Rand shrugged her shoulders, clearly proud of her small feat.

“I simply filled up the coffee pot with coffee grinds and water, zapped it with my phaser, and presto-chango, coffee!  Now, mind you, you may end up glowing in the dark after drinking the stuff, but at least it’s hot.”

Rand’s quip was followed by grateful, relaxed chuckles from the rest of the landing party, all except for Mr. Spock, who waved away Rand’s gesture

of offering.

“I fail to see how drinking coffee that has been heated with a phaser will actually make one glow in the dark,” he said with an incredulousness that only he could deliver.

Rand, after taking Spock’s coffee for herself, looked at him with a deadpan expression on her face and said: “That was a joke, Mr. Spock.”

Spock nodded his head, as if doing so would make him eventually understand, but the final raise of an eyebrow indicated a clear mark of defeat in ever getting the joke.

   

'Tis Charity to Show Chapter III Part 1: Warning for sexual content

‘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.  

'Tis Charity to Show Chapter II Part 3

‘Tis Charity to Show

Chapter II

Part 3

Rand left the changing room in a shot, pacing herself as quickly as she possibly could, away from the unwanted company of a certain nurse. 

“Hey, Janice!  Wait up!”

Rand continued, stepping up her pace and looking straight ahead, maneuvering around other pedestrians in a desperate attempt to lose this woman in the corridors. 

“I seeee yoou!”

God, she couldn’t get a moment’s peace down the goddamn hall!  Was this a little glimpse of how her time on Tijus would be? 

“There you are!”  said Rose, breathing heavily.

Wasn’t Starfleet personnel supposed to be in tip-top physical condition?

“I sure wish we didn’t have to wear these stupid jumpsuits!  I hate the way I look in them!”

“Is this a mission, or a fashion show?”  Rand thought to herself caustically.

Looking at the two women together, one might be able to understand Rose’s insecurities.  Side by side, the differences in the way they looked in their tan form-fitting jumpsuits was so stark in contrast, it was almost comical.  Rose’s thick-waisted, thick-limbed, medium-height physique made her look like a single piece of sausage in shrink-wrapping.  Even her medium ashy-brown hair lacked definition, styled in a cut that appeared to be growing out of whatever shape it was originally intended for.

Listening to Rose go on and on was absolutely insufferable.  What exactly was it in her physiology that kept those lips flapping and those cords honking out mish-mosh?  She would be sure to try to avoid this woman by any means possible on Tijus, “trying” being the operative word.  Rand wasn’t sure, quite frankly, if it would be possible at all, the six of them stuck together for a time on a desert planet.  She shuddered at the thought.

It was a sign of mercy from above when the two women reached the transporter room.  They walked through the double automated doors and saw the rest of the landing party dressed in their desert terrain attire, placing needed equipment onto the transporter pad.

 There was one tall man who was not a part of the landing party, as his broad tapered back was clad in the red tunic of engineering, but he was hoisting up a particularly large, heavy piece of equipment with the ease that a human would with a great big stuffed animal, of an huge empty cardboard box.  Rand stopped walking and stood still, catching her breath.  When Khobran placed the generator onto the transporter pad, he turned around. 

The two lovers were hooked together by the power of their gazes, enclosing them under an invisible capsule of their own making that no one else could enter.  Khobran moved ever so slightly, trying to get on with his duties, but he stayed where he was.  Rand walked towards him with quiet determination, her eyes never leaving him, holding him with an expression on her face that said: “We’re not done here, and you’ll never be able to shake me.  Don’t try it.”  But, what came out of her mouth was a tender, sweet “Hi, Khobran.”

She could feel her eyes sting, and she frankly didn’t care whether people would be able to see her cry if she did so.  If it embarrassed Khobran, then so be it.

 Khobran looked down at Rand, his eyes conveying both longing to be with her and pleading for her to keep away.   Love and pain.  When he finally managed to pull away from her, it was with a hesitation that spoke of a conflict going on inside him.  Good.  That was exactly where she wanted him. 

Rand followed Khobran with a hawk’s eye when he positioned himself behind the transporter console.  She prowled after him, undulating her hips, running her fingertips over the edges of the shining black control board.  Gathering her hands behind her back, Rand leaned back into the console, displaying her graceful curves encased in her terrain jumpsuit for Khobran’s benefit.  He ignored Rand, or tried to, but his extreme focus on the panel controls were a dead-out giveaway to his uneasiness.  Khobran’s handsome face looked strained, and his neck was craned downward in a way that it made Rand worry that he might be hurting himself, and all on account of avoiding eye contact with her.  She could see a small vein popping from the side of his neck as he glued his eyes on the control board.

“A little bit too much concentration, don’t you think?” she asked lightly, looking into his face.

Khobran parted his lips, and he shifted his feet back and forth, his eyes darting rapidly under her scrutiny.  Was he squirming? 

“Energize,” Scotty called back to Khobran.

Khobran promptly pulled the mechanism down, which transmuted the equipment into scrambling light particles that vanished from sight.

“You did that well,” said Rand smiling softly.

Khobran turned his head in Rand’s direction and then quickly snapped it back down to the console. 

“Uhm, have everything you need for the mission?” he asked tentatively, his deep voice catching at the end of his last word.

“Yes, I do.”  Rand pushed herself up from the console and pressed herself gently against him.

“Is that the last of the equipment, Scotty?”  he asked, his composure slipping as he continued to shift on his feet.  Back and forth…back and forth…

“Yes, laddy!  That’s it,” said Scotty with a bright smile.

“Well, I guess that’s your cue, huh?” Khobran said to Rand.

It was then that he mustered up the courage to look directly at her, his love for her so achingly apparent in his eyes.  Oh, God, Khobran.  I’m so sorry.  I love you, don’t you know that?

“Khobran,” Rand said, reaching for his shoulder and squeezing it.  “I wish you were coming with me on this mission,” she half-whispered.

Rand gave him one more lingering look before she turned away and headed for the  transporter platform.  She took her place on one of the pads, next to Riley, and turned to face Khoban as he stood, a tad shaken, behind the controls.

“Ready to beam down, Lieutenant,” Mr. Spock said from where he was situated. 

Khobran worked the controls, his capable hands making final adjustments for landing party beam down.

“The equipment should be just a few centmeters in front of you when you arrive on the planet,” said Khobran, glancing at Rand every now and then.

“Very good,” said Spock. “We are ready for beam down, Mr. Khobran.”

Rand watched Khobran pull the transporting lever down, and a light, tingly, swirling sensation coursed upwards and across her body.  At the point of near dematerialization, Rand felt a tear fall from her eye when she looked at Khobran for the last time, his yearning face rippling and finally submerging into the vast ocean of cold black space.

'Tis Charity to Show Chapter II Part 2: Warning for sexual content

‘Tis Charity to Show

Chapter II

Part 2

Rand walked quickly through the large, orderly labyrinth of the busy changing room station, clothes and equipment cradled in her arms as she searched for an available stall.  Finally spotting an empty room, Rand claimed it, stepped in and placed her stuff on a table.  Once settled, she walked over to the corner where the open and shut mechanism was situated and positioned her hand over the button, when she heard a low pitched, nasal voice from just outside the hall.

“Mind if I join you?”

Rand turned to see a smiling Nurse Rose standing in the hall of the labyrinth, holding her own stuff in her arms.

“Shit,” thought Rand.  “Is she kidding?”  She let out a defeated breath and motioned Rose to come in.  “You’re already here, Hyacinth. Come on.”

Rose eagerly stepped in and placed her clothes and equipment next to Rand’s on the table.  Judging from the vacant smile on her face, Rose had clearly missed the dripping sarcasm rimming in Rand’s voice.  Rose started talking immediately, not wasting even a moment of quiet time.

“Wow!  Talk about a mission, huh?  What on earth do you suppose happened to those people?  Talk about hide-and –seek, huh?”

Rand tried to ignore Rose as she pressed the mechanism that shut the door to the changing room.  When the two women had privacy, Rand walked over to the table where her clothes and equipment sat.

“Yeah, hide-and-seek,” said Rand dispassionately, paying more attention to her hair than to Rose’s yammering.  She gingerly pulled the bobbi pins from her French twist, working her fingers through her hair until it fell to the length of her back.  Rand placed the pins on the table and began to undress. 

Rand was not too happy right now.  Between being stuck in this room with Miss Chatterbox and her guilt over hurting Khobran, this day was certainly not starting out too well.  Perhaps, maybe, this mission would keep her preoccupied. Right now, that was the one thing she had to look forward to.  Hopefully, she’d be able to avoid Rose as much as possible during the mission.  At least Rand could be thankful that she was a yeoman, and not a doctor.   

“Oh, wow!  Look at you, girl,” said Rose jauntily.

Rand turned to Rose as she placed her uniform, pantyhose, red shorts and undergarments on the table.

“What’s wrong?” asked Rand, annoyed.

“You have such a nice figure, all slender and curvy at the same time.  Look at those breasts—they just shoot out like heat-seeking missiles! Full speed ahead!”

Rose fell back in loud whooping guffaws, her face turning chili-pepper red, her belly shaking.  Rand smirked, and positioned herself so that she was squarely facing Rose.

“Wait ‘till you see how they aim!” Rand said with oiliness.

Rose stopped in mid laughter, almost as if by a switch, looked at Rand blankly, and then broke into even louder, more grating laughter.  Rand rolled her eyes, shook her head, and reached for the specially padded, smooth, shapeless undergarments that were worn under the jumpsuits.  Her nerves rattled under Rose’s uncontrollable chuckles and snorts while she stepped into her underpants, making the simple act of dressing feel more like a session of Chinese water torture.  As Rose’s laughter subsided, much to Rand’s relief, Rand suddenly had the distinct feeling that there were eyes glued on her.  She turned to Rose, expectantly.

“Is there a problem?”

“Oh, no.  It’s just that your figure reminds me so much of Christine’s.  Long lines and curves.”

Rand stopped in the mist of changing, clearly insulted by this dubious comparison.

“Why the hell would you say something like that to me?” she asked, incredulous.

“Well, uh, I’m not saying they’re the exact same…”

“Exactly, because they’re not!”

“…but they fall into the same type.  So tall, slender, curvy.  You know?”

Rand continued to change, reaching for her jumpsuit and stepping into the pant legs.

“Whatever,” she said with disgust.

She had seen Chapel naked once, in the women’s steam room, where she had, in the middle of her “all about moi” chats, undraped her towel and tossed it aside in her inimitable over-dramatic form, so that her adoring minion of butt-kissers could envy the physical graces that she thought she was blessed with.  Chapel’s body was nice enough, reminding one of a runway model from Earth’s consumer past.  Lots of length and sharp lines, her physique was an angular dream for designers to drape fabric over.  Elegant was the word one came up with in describing Chapel’s body. 

Aside from her height, there was nothing elegant about Rand’s body.  Slender, taunt lines gave way to soft curves that fabric tended to hug and cling to, accentuating her tiny waist, her pert little ass, her firm thighs, her full, jutting breasts.  She was proud of her body, and she loved the fact that Khobran loved it too. 

Rand recalled the time when they were in her quarters, and she had just removed the last stitch of clothing on her body.  She stood naked in front of Khobran, her lips parted as she piled her hair on her head and lowered her gaze directly at him.  He sat on the edge of the bed, fully clothed.  His eyes swept over her every inch, savoring her body.  Rand smiled, remembering Khobran pulling her towards him and bracing her between his knees while he explored her brazenly, thoroughly.  Almost to the brink of orgasm, Rand reached down and tugged the waist of his pants, revealing his erect member, already glistening at the tip.  Every fiber in her body pulsated when her lover picked her up effortlessly by her hips, placed his hands between her thighs, gently pushed them open, and lowered her onto him, making her gasp at that first shot of probing, moist, exquisite pain. 

Then, the memories started to fade, to change, to refocus to the last time they were together in her quarters.  She could see the argument, how angry Khobran was, how hurt.  The tears brimming in his eyes, and then his coolness, his withdrawal.

“Is everything all right?  You seem far away.”

“What?”

“Wanna talk about it?”

Rand looked sharply at Rose.  What was it about Chapel and her nosy horde that they were able to sniff out just the right moments to interrupt her thoughts.

“No, I don’t,” Rand said flatly.

By now, the two women were fully clothed and equipped for their mission on Tijus.

“Oh, come on! I can be a good listener,” said Rose, leaning into Rand’s side and giving her a little nudge.  Rand shook her head and snorted, not even bothering to give Rose a second glance.

“Good listening is usually a prerequisite for good gossip,” she said with pronounced sarcasm. 

And with that, Rand picked up her clothes, hair pins, and boots, walked over to one of the lockers, placed her stuff in one of the slots, and locked them safely in.  Standing with her back to Rose, Rand brushed and gathered her hair into a low-riding ponytail, walked back to the table, threw her brush in her duffle, zipped it closed, slung it over her shoulder, went over to the mechanism that operated the door, punched it open, and walked out of the changing room without looking back, or saying another word.

'Tis Charity to Show Chapter II Part 1

Tis Charity to Show

Chapter II

Part 1

Rand hurried down the ship’s corridors, turning her head on either side of her, watching for him, straining to see if she’d find him among the passing bodies walking by.  She wanted another chance to talk to him, to make him understand that he had jumped to conclusions about their relationship.  Rand was on edge, preoccupied, her nerves raw and prickly as she looked up and down the corridors, chanting please please please Khobran let me find you!  Before she knew it she was in front of the double doors to the conference room, effectively putting her fruitless search for Khobran to an end. Rand sighed heavily and allowed herself one last look around the halls.  No dice. 

She finally gave up, entering the conference room, where she found the rest of the landing party hanging out, waiting for word on what their mission would be.  No one was sitting down at the conference table; some crewmembers were leaning on the table’s edge, others simply stood around looking at their feet, the walls, not really looking at one another.  The landing party seemed preoccupied, as if being called for this mission had interrupted something big going on in their lives. 

“Join the club,” Rand thought to herself.

She quietly walked over to the wall and leaned against it, surveying the people who’d accompany her on the planet Tijus.

Scotty smiled at Rand when their eyes met, and she waved at him, returning his smile.  She was happy to see that he was included in this search party.  Besides being an all-around great guy, Scotty had proven to be a lifesaver, quite literally, on many past missions.  Khobran had told her, on several occasions, that Scotty served as a kind of mentor to him, a kind of father figure during the time of his own father’s absence.  They’ve grown pretty close, and while the thought of that warmed her, it also made her lonely, for while Scotty still had a friendship with the man she loved, she had a distance from him now that was of her own thoughtless making.  Rand felt the tears coming on, but forced them down with a tight-lipped smile as she turned her attention to Kevin Riley.

Riley gave Rand one of his endearing, crooked smiles and wriggled his brows comically.  Rand laughed, her mood forgivingly lifted.  Kevin Riley was the ship’s resident clown, and an outrageous, though good- natured flirt.  She’s always considered him, along with Nyota and Hikaro, a good friend.

Rand’s attention turned to Dr. Mathias Begay, who was leaning against the table’s edge.  The young doctor looked briefly up at Rand, acknowledged her with a nod, and then returned his gaze to his feet.  Rand didn’t know Dr. Begay very well, and had only talked to him in passing, but he seemed to be a nice enough guy.  Rand had a wicked thought just at that moment, as her mind’s eyes presented an image of her raising her arms and shouting to the heavens: “Thank God he ain’t Dr. McCoy!”  She chuckled, tickled and relieved until she turned her attention to the last member of the landing party.

Her relief was popped and deflated when she spotted Nurse Hyacinth Rose leaning against the edge of the table next to Dr. Begay, biting her nails and scrutinizing the damage.  Rand rolled her eyes and groaned.

“Look at this idiot!  When she’s away from a cafeteria, she makes a meal out of her nails.  She probably sees the dirt between her nails as a side dish,” Rand thought, disgusted.

Rand clearly understood that every doctor needed their nurse, but why, of all people, did they have to select a member of Chapel’s catty gossip brigade?  Rand took a good look at Nurse Rose.

“Well, she was certainly made to be a follower with her non-descript self,” Rand thought.

Having Rose on the mission could prove to be a miserable prospect.  Just then, Nurse Rose looked up at Rand and started to say something.  Rand abruptly turned away, mercifully avoiding eye contact, putting an end to any meandering, immature chit chat before it had a chance to even begin.

Just then, Rand heard the double doors zip open.  Captain Kirk entered the conference room with First Officer Spock close behind him. 

“Everyone’s here.  Good.  Let’s get started, please.” 

The landing party gathered around the long round table and took their places as they pulled out chairs to sit around the captain.  Kirk sat at the head of the table while Spock sat at his right.  Rand sat across from Spock, to the captain’s left.  Placing her equipment on the table, she turned on her recorder and positioned it in voice range of Kirk, situated her padd in front of her and poised her pen over it. 

“Thank you all for being prompt,” said Captain Kirk.  “You’ve all been selected for a search and rescue mission on the planet Tijus.  An archeological team conducting excavations of a recently discovered ancient civilization has disappeared without a trace, literally.” 

The lights dimmed, and images of the desert planet Tijus appeared on the viewing screen, behind the captain’s chair.

“There have been previous searches with full-planet scans, but no trace of life-forms have ever been detected.”

“Excuse me sir, but exactly how many searches such as these have been conducted?” asked Riley.

“In actuality, there have been three separate searches,” said Spock.

Puzzled looks passed between the other members of the landing party.

“I don’t seem to understand, sir.  If three full-planet scans couldn’t pick up any life forms, then why exactly are we going down there?” asked Scotty.

“I agree with Mr. Scott.  It just doesn’t make any sense.  No one is down there, as obvious from the findings of these scans,” said Dr. Begay thoughtfully.

“Protocol, Dr. Begay,” said Kirk, smiling good-naturedly.  “When all other mechanical searches pick up nothing, then a search party goes in.”

Rand took down notes on her padd, its surface lit to accommodate her in the artificially-imposed darkness of the room.

Kirk continued.  “You will all conduct the search, of course, on the excavation site.  This mission will have a week’s duration, so you will be staying on the premises, in the station where the archeologists stayed.  You are to report any findings, or lack there of, to Mr. Spock, who will report back to the ship.  This is a desert planet, so you will be equipped with the proper attire.  Mr. Spock will take over from here to tell you about other things you’ll need for this mission.  Any questions?”

The captain paused, looking directly at each member of the search party. 

“Good.  Mr. Spock, it’s all yours now.”

Kirk got up from the head of the table and walked out of the conference room, while Spock got up from his own chair and sat down in the captain's place.