Jeremy linked arms with Sakura and Daffy as if still in the grip of the strange mood that had seized them. “What was that?” he asked, pulling them into a relatively private corner of the cargo bay.
Sakura was still giggling. “That was trippy.”
Paget laughed out of inertia instead of amusement as he turned to Gollub. “What did you make of that?”
“I don’t know what I made of it,” Daffy answered, wiping her forehead. “but it made me horny and somewhat hungry.”
Jeremy grabbed a bottle of beverage from a table nearby and took a deep swallow. “That was xenoneurophene?”
“I think that was mostly Del,” Daffy answered, as Paget passed the bottle to Tamura. “Super-charged by xenoneurophene – but still Del.”
Jeremy put an arm around Gollub. "I've been thinking - wondering actually -- as much as thinking or wondering has been possible for me during this -- If you were a secret organization, why would you use a drug that enhances telepathy?"
“Because they have absolutely nothing to hide?” Sakura guessed, still giggling.
Daffy rolled her eyes. “Next.”
“Because it reveals who the telepaths are,” the yeoman suggested a little more soberly.
“And makes them incredibly powerful,” Gollub pointed out. “Not too smart.”
“Listen, Miss Sunshine,” Paget said with faux pleasantness as they sank down into a convenient pile of pillows, “if you have nothing constructive to contribute…”
“Maybe there’s some bad side effect?” Sakura speculated.
“Daf said no.” Jeremy said, settling in beside her.
“About that…” Gollub began.
Paget closed his eyes in anticipation. “Oh, shit.”
“When I said no side effects, I was thinking in terms of one dose. However, if the said telepath is also a greedy, addiction-prone, masochist…”
Sakura shook her head in sorrowful anticipation of the next portion of the chemist’s statement. “Oh, poor Del…
“And takes..”
“Or is fed…” Paget conjectured.
“…large does over a period of several weeks, then there may be a saturation effect.” Gollub paused to take a long drink from their bottle. “This is also assuming that xenoneurophene behaves like some other drugs in its extended pharmacological family.”
“And just to make sure that I’m not comin’ up with somethin’ worse than what you mean, would you mind tellin’ us what you mean by a saturation effect?” Paget requested.
Gollub shrugged. “Sort of what it sounds like. When the target organ becomes supersaturated, the drug’s effect begins to spread to adjacent organs.”
“Damn.” Paget swore softly. “That’s what I thought you meant.”
“What’s adjacent to the brain?” Sakura asked. “The neck?”
“The lower brain,” Jeremy supplied, giving her an affectionate caress for the benefit of anyone watching them.
“Exactly.” Daffy said, snuggling against the two of them. “Xenoneurophene is all fun and trippy when it’s playing with chemical balance and bioenergy of the cerebrum, but when it calls playtime in the cerebellum and the medulla oblongata, then not so happy things can happen – “
“Like the body might forget to make your heart beat,” Jeremy explained, kissing Tamura’s forehead. “or breathe, or digest food…”
“Sure hope it's not bowel control that kicks out first when Del goes…” Daffy said, pleasantly.
“You’re saying when, not if?” Paget asked, putting his arm around her as well.
“Okay, I’m not that sure.” Gollub mentioned. “And we don’t have the equipment to test…”
“I don’t think we’re gonna need it to confirm this particular theory.”
“Why not?”
“If telepaths here routinely suffer horrible sudden deaths, there will be stories.”
Daffy nodded. “So we should ask?”
“Oh, no,” Paget said, giving them both a friendly squeeze. “but we should be very, very ready to listen.”
“You guys are just so great,” Diona enthused. “You all know each other so well, and you chime and love each other despite all your normal Human –“ she grinned at the Antari, “- or not so Human flaws. That’s so rare, and so beautiful…”
“He’s rare,” Ruth agreed, with a warm smile at Del.
“An’ she beautiful,” Del returned automatically, but Ruth could still feel the anger beneath his easy façade.
“I mean,” Diona was continuing, “you two are so into each other and yet Ruth can be with Sulu over there and it doesn’t bother either of you.”
“I know where her heart lie,” Del interrupted again, and inside her head, Ruth heard the hiss that didn’t cover his spoken words.
“You’re a telepath, too, right, Ruth?” the Sevrinite asked. “I mean, you’re Antari, so…”
Ruth smiled pleasantly. “Yeah, the two usually go together.”
“But you’ve got a boatload of control, right? It’s natural in Antaris, right? Not like…” Diona suddenly clamped her hand over her mouth, turning again to Del. “Oops. I’m sorry, brother, I don’t mean to sledge you.”
"No sledgin’,” Del said. “What true is true. But you help me, li’l sister, an' I not forget that.” His rare smile was beaming approval and focused exclusively on the Eden-head.
Ruth frowned, though she made sure the expression didn’t reach her lips. What did she do for you? she asked irritably.
You jealous now, cher? came his taunting response.
His earlier words swam in her head, golden honey love, darlin’ sugar angel and she pushed them away. I told you what you were doing during the song… she said instead.
And you t'ink I not know 'bout it, Del sneered. You t'ink you have to warn poor ol’ dumb Del, save him from hisself…
And since you obviously did know, what the hell do you think you’re…!
Tellin’ it like it is, babe. Reachin’. Chimin’. That what I supposed to do, non?
Not when it controls you, Ruth insisted. We’re supposed to control it.
Speakin’ of control, Del’s mind-voice said, suddenly blithe and casual, ain’t you supposed to make time wit’ the green hunk of transtators you marry? He turned away from her, solidly closing the communication between them. “Y’all want more music?” he asked of the gathered Sevrinites.
There were several answers in the affirmative, and Ruth blew him a kiss, then went back over to where Sulu had reclined against one of the walls.
“He knows what he’s doing, and he doesn’t care,” she whispered into Sulu’s ear. “And he’s gonna keep on doing it.” Her voice was bitter, and she felt the helmsman’s arms come around her in supportive sympathy. “Can we pretend to be so into each other while I contact Spock?”
She felt his nod, then he was nuzzling at her neck, holding her close, providing the perfect cover for her mental concentration.
Ruth carefully opened the link to Spock. Husband?
His response came immediately. Yes, my wife.
We’re at what the Sevrinites call Dreamland Base. It’s an abandoned supply depot in the Beta Navarre system.
So noted.
And we’ve got more problems. They’re cutting the Haven drugs with xenoneurophene.
Spock’s mental presence frowned. That could be quite dangerous, Ruth.
Yeah, don’t I know it. And there’s more. They’re giving Del something else, but Daffy hasn’t had the chance to analyze it yet.
Indeed. What are its effects?
His head is quiet, but his telepathy is really amped up, more so than the xenoneurophene. It seems to simultaneously enhance what he’s got, and awaken new, deeper skills – and I can’t be sure, but it also seems to make him not give a damn about…
Mmmm, this feels so good, broke suddenly into the conversation.
Roy! Ruth snapped.
Sulu’s mental presence started, then glowed pink with chagrin. Sorry, Spike. Xenoneurophene. My apologies, Commander Spock.
Understood, Lieutenant Commander. I believe the phrase is you are not yet dead.
Sulu chuckled, then carefully withdrew.
Ruth felt the Vulcan’s thorough exploration to make certain no one else was aware of or able to intrude on their link. That was – interesting, he said, guardedly neutral.
Roy’s empathy seems to be amped up too.
But he spoke to us, beloved. Would that not take some telepathic talent?
Well, we’re in pretty close physical contact right now. Cover, she added as explanation.
Would that explain it?
With the xenoneurophene, maybe. But Ruth’s voice sounded uncertain.
You will have to monitor him, then, came Spock’s cautioning advice.
Ruth sighed. Yeah. Chekov’s been taken to meet Galliulin, she continued. And Del has decided that music is the perfect psychic weapon.
Weapon?
He’s using song lyrics to fuck with people’s mental states.
And, as you said, he is more powerful and does not care that his abilities are causing difficulties, Spock returned.
Yeah, Ruth agreed unhappily. So far, I can take it, and he hasn’t really hurt anyone else… She paused. Well, except for Daffy and Chekov… and Roy… She trailed off. Damn him!
You are all capable officers, my wife. You will survive this.
Yeah, Ruth said again. Then, Oh, I’m going to be making actual subspace contact with you in a little while to try and convince you to reach and be One.
I will remain adamant and uncooperative, Spock assured.
Just don’t make it look too easy, huh, Boss?
Understood, beloved.
There was silence between them for a moment. Í miss you, Ruth said.
And I you, Spock returned. And again, Jilla would request that I…
And he loves her, too, Ruth giggled.
I will enjoy hearing your voice and seeing your face, my wife.
Ditto, husband,
Until our next contact, then.
Ruth sighed again, and closed the link, then hugged Sulu. “You did great, Roy,” she said. “You are a greatly loved person.”
He smiled at her. “And so are you,” he said.
Daphne Gollub happened to be facing in the opposite direction when the group of Sevrinite elite disembarked from one of the lifts opening onto the cargo bay. She gasped a little in surprise when Jeremy Paget suddenly wrapped his arms around her in a big bearhug.
“Brace yourself, Daf,” the Security Officer murmured in to her ear. “She’s here.”
“The bitch?” Gollub asked trying to peer around him. “Is he with her?”
Paget firmly prevented her. “Whether he is or not, we’re going to stay cool, aren’t we?”
The chemist’s eyes were hard. “As fucking ice,” she replied.
“Good girl,” Paget said, releasing her and hoping for the best. He smiled broadly as Madvig, Lace, and Phen made their way towards them. A Human female with long dark hair, another with a quirky blonde pony-tail, and a Catullan male accompanied them.
“Gypsy! Cobra!” Lace called to them. “Come meet Irina, Chione, and Tongo!”
“Hey, Saki.” Phen stole a casual kiss from Tamura as he drew near. “How do you like the place thus far?”
“Dunno,” she shrugged. “Haven’t located the Giant Bong of Dreamland yet.” The blonde - Chione - gave her a happy though rather vacant smile.
“I don’t know what you Herberts have been told about us,” the lavender-haired youth said with an ill-concealed sneer, “but we aren’t dropouts who stay high all the time.”
“Hey, brother,” Jeremy protested, putting up his hands. “We aren’t Herberts. You reach?”
“Yeah, Tongo,” Lace said hastily. “It’s just that we partied pretty heavily on the Shambala coming in. Not much else to do.”
“Certainly nothing better,” Phen said, giving Daffy an enthusiastic hug.
“Yeah,” the chemist said, quickly disentangling herself. “Real transcendent.”
"We just don't do that as much here," Lace explained with a shrug and a chagrinned smile. "But you’re still free to do whatever turns you on as long as it doesn’t interfere with your work.”
“Work?” Daffy repeated. Paget wasn’t sure if it was her resistance to the idea or just a spillover of the bile being generated within her by Irina Galliulin’s presence.
"If you are One," the Catullan said, unsmiling, “you’re going to have to prove yourselves useful to this commune and an asset to furthering the Cause.”
Jeremy spread his heads amenably. "So, what can we do to help, brother?"
”Since we know you guys pretty well,” Lace said, drawing out some pieces of paper. “We’ve put together some suggestions..”
"Where are the others?" Madvig asked abruptly.
Paget noted that she had remained uncharacteristically quiet, allowing Tongo Rad and Lace to do all the talking.
“I’ll get them,” Sakura headed to the corner where Ruth and Sulu looked for all the world like they were making out.
"And Mr. Charm is giving a command performance," Daffy added, jerking a thumb towards the area where Del was playing to a rapt group of Edenites.
Lace gave her the same sort of gently admonishing look she often bestowed on Stupid Roger. "Sister, he's got real talent," she began.
The chemist grinned her best all-teeth grin. "Yeah, he’s just full of…” Jeremy very subtly but not-so-gently elbowed Daffy in the ribs. “…talent."
Phen giggled lasciviously. "He got lots of talents.” Chione covered her mouth with her hand, her blue eyes twinkling merrily.
“Sure,” Daffy returned snidely, “ but he can be a foul-tempered….”
“…son of a bitch,” Lace finished with her, and giggled. “Yeah, I remember that.”
“Where’s Brother Pavel?” Paget asked casually as Lace handed him a slip of paper.
Lace deferred to Madvig who in turn shot a brief look at Irina and Tongo. “He’s meditating.”
“Worn out after contributing to the Cause?” Daffy asked acidly, her eyes on Galliulin.
“Oh, how interesting,” Paget said, hastily opening his piece of paper. “Base maintenance or systems monitor.”
"Gardening or communications technician?" Sakura asked, looking at hers. "Couldn’t I do something more organizational? I'm a detail person."
"Great, Gypsy!" Lace said. "Mad, she can run the outreach stuff!"
"Now if you need a security specialist…" Jeremy offered generously. “Or general heavy lifting?” He grinned. “Once a red-shirt, always a red-shirt.”
“That’s real funny, Herbert,” Tongo said tersely. Jeremy looked appropriately crest-fallen.
“Hey, I didn’t mean it like that.”
Sakura stepped up to him, putting her arm around the tall man’s waist. “That’s just his way of saying he’s big and strong,” she said, and gave him a seductive wink.
“I’ll be happy doin’ anything I can,” Jeremy rejoined.
“Tongo, we can always use help on the security end, especially in the rallies,” Phen offered helpfully, smiling at Jeremy.
“He’s got his assignment, Phen,” Tongo returned.
“I’ll be fine in general maintenance,” Paget said. “I don’t want to sledge anyone.”
“Housecleaning?” Daffy made a face at her slip of paper. “Food preparation? I’m a chemist, not a short order cook.”
“We’ve got that covered,” Tongo replied tightly.
“Schlepping it is,” Daffy returned, her smile still brittle.
“Are you all still Herberts?” Tongo asked sharply, apparently annoyed by their lack of enthusiasm for their assignments. “Or are you One?”
“We’re One, brother,” Jeremy assured him, flashing the sign for good measure. Sakura and Daffy did the same – although Gollub always somehow managed to make the gesture look a little obscene.
“Hey, brothers.” Sulu strolled up with an arm around Ruth. “What’s up?”
The Catullan’s eyes widened. “S... Sulu?”
The helmsman beamed at him. “Tongo! Good to see you, man!”
“I… I didn’t think you’d remember me,” Rad said, his perma-sneer suddenly melting.
Sulu instinctively up-shifted from his normal smile to a sensual, promising one. “Of course I do. And hello to you, too, Irina, Chione,” he added, including the Russian and the blonde woman in his greeting.
“They’ve been givin’ us some suggestions for jobs we can do to help out around here,” Paget explained, taking careful note of the exchange.
“Education services?” Ruth read. “Morale?”
“Flying patrols!” Sulu grinned, not even looking at the second choice. “Yeah! I’m there!”
“Education… as in children?” Ruth was asking.
”Not exactly.” Lace giggled. “At least not yet.”
"Public relations,” Galliulin clarified, her accent as thick as Chekov’s. “I read once that Antaris are particularly gifted at crafting persuasive messages.”
Something about the way she dragged the words out set Ruth’s teeth on edge.
"She could sure persuade me of anything," Phen said, running an overly familiar hand down her side.
“If I wanted to,” Ruth replied, fending him off with a cheery smile.
”And what about the Ragin’ Cajun?” Gollub asked, jerking her head in his direction.
Madvig smiled for the first time. "All we ask of him is that he enlighten us with his gift."
“A tough gig that,” Gollub observed, as a Del leaned back against the breast of the Loonie chick stroking his hair and closed his eyes as he continued to coax sweet strains of melody from the boshzier.
“What about Chekov?” Sulu asked, noticing his absence for the first time.
“He’s been given his assignment,” Madvig said, a little tightly. The smile she had for Del had faded.
“Well, he must have been glad to see you,” Sulu said to Irina, willing himself not to care about the daggers Daffy was about to stare through his back.
“Pavel and I…” Galliulin paused. “…have somewhat grown apart.”
”Oh, too bad,” Gollub said, brimming with insincerity.
“He requires some time alone to consider his feelings about the connection that has previously existed between us.”
Paget gave Daffy a discreet jab in the side that prevented the sarcastic reply she was formulating from leaving her lips.
"So are we all chiming?" Lace asked brightly. "Okay, then, duty schedules are always posted in the dining hall - that's the cargo bay through those doors over there." She pointed. "Take the rest of the day to get yourselves settled. We do all have rooms here, not like on the Shambala, but I'm afraid it's always been first come. So you may have to share."
There were various comments, all versions of 'not a problem' and Phen smiled. "Welcome home, brethren!"
The rooms were small, but still cluttered with pillows and rugs and hanging plants. Despite what Lace had said, Jeremy, Sulu and Sakura managed to find an unoccupied room they could share, and Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief. Without his presence, he knew – and it was far from an egotistical thought – the helmsman could get himself into serious trouble way too easily. Daffy ended up sharing with Lace and Roger, and Paget didn’t at all like the way she was showing her teeth while she expressed her excited ‘pleasure.’ Diona and Ravi maneuvered Del into their cabin, and Phen looked all too eager to offer to room with Ruth. But Madvig gave him a disapproving frown and he good-naturedly backed off.
“Come on, you can share with Kiymet and me,” the Sevrinite offered, and Ruth let her gaze fall longingly on Del. Madvig laughed. “Don’t worry, you’ll be able to spend time with him,” she assured, and Ruth shrugged and nodded.
There wasn’t any gear to get stowed, so after making a note of where he was going to be sleeping, Paget returned to the cargo bay to try and get better acquainted with some of the non-Shambala Loonies. The first thing he saw was that Del had also returned, and was picking random notes on the boshzier. The engineer was frowning, shaking his head sharply every few seconds. Paget went over to him, crouching beside him.
“You okay, NC?” he asked.
“Got a buzzin’ in my head,” the Cajun replied. “An’ no, I not do any hornets.”
“Could it be from whatever those little blue pills are?”
“This jus' started,” Del refuted, and shook his head again.
“Is it a withdrawal…” Paget began again and Del scowled at him. “Maybe you need to get some sleep,” Jeremy offered.
“I fine, Daddy, I jus' got a buzzin’ –“ Del’s voice stopped abruptly. His dark eyes went very wide, and he rasped in a voice not entirely his own, “Is – this - home?”
What the…? “NC?” Paget questioned.
“Where – is – Irina – Tongo – Mad…” The engineer’s face grimaced and he fell over. Jeremy quickly checked his vital signs, then called for Ruth.
Images swarmed through Del’s consciousness, thin and insubstantial. The only thing he could make out clearly was a broadly smiling face with tangles of curly blonde hair. The man seemed to be reaching for something, joy unlike anything Del could ever remember feeling spreading out from his hand. He heard a deep, jovial voice say, “Play it, brother. It’s yours now,” and he opened his eyes to find Madvig and three people he didn’t know looming close to him.
“That was him,” Madvig was saying, and her eyes were shining with wonder. “I’d know his voice anywhere.”
“But he died!” said a man, a Catullan from the bushy lavender eyebrows and long blue, silver and lavender hair.
“We felt it on the Shambala when he first played Adam’s boshzier,” Madvig returned.
“Such a thing is not possible,” said another women who, from her accent, could only be Irina Galliulin.
“Who knows what’s possible with one as gifted as he is,” giggled the fourth person, a woman with bright blue eyes and a thick, blonde pony-tail that seemed stuck to the side of her head.
“That was Adam’s voice!” Madvig insisted.
Del tried to clear his throat. “I not…” he began, then was seized by a compulsion he couldn’t understand to say, instead of what he’d been planning, “Find the way, brothers, live the dream, sisters.”
“Adam!” the pony-tail girl cried and threw her arms around Del’s shoulders.
“What the hell is going on?” Ruth demanded in a whisper. She had raced to Jeremy’s call, reaching for Del, only to be practically torn aside by Tongo Rad and the others.
Paget shrugged. “It looks like he’s channeling the spirit of a dead Loonie,” he replied sourly.
The Antari let out a shuddering sigh. “Oy geveult…”
“Yeah, don’t I know it.”
“Jer, these things Del’s able to do – he wasn’t able to do them last week.”
“I know.”
“This can’t this be just the xenoneurophene”
“You’re right there.”
“What are they giving him!”
“I don’t know. But I better find a way to find out and fast.”
Sulu started feeling nauseous only minutes after stepping into the room he was going to be living in for the next please, god, make it only a matter of a few weeks. Jeremy had returned to the cargo bay to, as he put it, get a read on the rest of the Loonies, and Sakura was efficiently sweeping the room for unwanted electronic guests. There was something seriously battering at the helmsman’s awareness, but he had no idea how to either focus on it to find out what it was, or to make it go away. His first thought was sonics. A high enough frequency was known to have all sorts of odd effects on the nervous system, notably paranoia, and with his personal history, paranoia usually mutated quickly into the sick feeling that was eating at his insides. He turned, signaling to Sakura that she was almost certainly going to find some kind of electronic transmitter – and the wall she was kneeling in front of became suddenly splattered with the unmistakable burn pattern of a phaser set to kill.
It was visible for only a moment, but in that moment Sulu was absolutely certain of what he was seeing. He’d taken enough hallucinogens in his life to know what one looked and felt like, and this was solidly, terribly real. He inhaled sharply, blinking at the sudden, accompanying confused terror that invaded his mind.
“Gypsy…” he managed, then gasped again as a surge of – something – seemed to pulse in the air around him, rushing through his body, making his legs buckle beneath him.
He was only aware of falling because he suddenly found himself in Sakura’s arms.
“Kam, what’s wrong?” she whispered.
“Get me out,” was all he could force between teeth held closed against the bile in his throat.
The really peculiar thing was, once Sakura had helped him stumble out of the room, all the nausea and dizziness and disorientation faded as if it had never been. He took a deep breath, straightening, then saw the cluster of people around DelMonde, and Ruth and Jeremy standing a few feet away. He waved off Sakura’s further aid, smiling at her, but took her hand and sauntered casually over to his friends.
“What’s going on?” he asked, his voice much lighter than he felt.
“Del’s in contact with some dead spirit,” Ruth said, frowning.
With sudden clarity, Sulu knew what had just happened to him. “There’s a lot of that going around,” he murmured.
“What?” Ruth, Sakura, and Jeremy hissed, all turning to him.
He tried to explain, as quickly and succinctly as he could, without drawing too much attention from the gathered Sevrinites.
“So somebody died in there?” Sakura asked when the helmsman was finished describing his experience.
“That would be my guess.”
“But how recently?” Ruth put in. “I mean, this station had been abandoned before the Eden-heads got to it.”
Sulu shook his head. “No, this was recent,” he said uncertainly, not sure how he knew. All he knew was – “I feel it.”
“Indiian by insertion, is that it?” Jeremy joked, but it was grim.
“Xenoneurophene,” Ruth countered.
Paget sighed. “You know, Daffodil and Gypsy and I were speculatin’ about the possibility of messy telepath deaths.”
Ruth’s eyes went wide. “Goddess, Del!”
“He could be in real trouble here, and not just from gettin’ smothered by Loonie affection,” Jeremy pointed out.
“What can we do about it?” Sakura asked worriedly.
“One step at a time,” Paget returned. “First, we find out what did happen in our new lovely little home. Gypsy, you nose around and see what rumors and apocryphal tales you can dig up. Spike, see what the keheil can find out without telegraphin’ that she’s lookin’.” Both women nodded. “And Kam, I don’t know if you noticed, but Rad seems to…”
“I noticed,” Sulu interrupted.
“Can you use it?”
The helmsman shrugged. “Not like Pavel, but I’ll see what I can…” He stopped speaking as the Catullan suddenly began walking toward them.
Sulu put on his best, most inviting smile as Rad approached. “There you are, brother,” he said, his voice low with feigned pleasure, and opened his arms for a sensual embrace. The Catullan’s eyes flickered in response, then he, too, smiled, and gave the helmsman a lingering hug.
“I hoped you’d reach sooner or later, brother,” Rad murmured. Sulu looked over the lavender-haired head, raising his eyebrows at Jeremy. Paget made a face, but nodded. The helmsman held on a little longer before, with a show of reluctance, disengaging Tongo’s clutching arms.
Rad smiled at him. “What brought you to us?” he asked, then quickly added, “Not that I don’t know what happened on Kostas, but – “ he frowned. “There has to be more to it than that.”
Sulu shrugged and Sakura was suddenly close to him, almost as if she were taking the place Rad had vacated. “We got tired of the sledging Herbert orders,” she said, then tilted her head up to kiss Sulu. “Didn’t we, Sulu-chan?”
“Kostas was just the last straw,” Jeremy put in, also moving closer to Sulu.
Catching the drift, Sulu held out his hand, letting Paget grasp hold of it. “Fleet wouldn’t let us be who we are,” he told Tongo. “They wouldn’t let us be with who we wanted to be with. They wanted their officers…” His voice dripped sarcasm on the word. “…to be straight and monogamous and one-on-one…” He smiled at Jeremy, pulling Sakura a little closer. “And that’s just not me.”
“I read that from you when I was on the Enterprise,” the Catullan replied, his eyes wide.
“There’s a lot that I thought I read from you, then, too,” Sulu murmured. “It just took me a while before I was able to see through the negativity and reach the truth.”
Ruth’s voice sounded sharp as she broke into the vibe that was quickly building. “It’s how we all felt,” she said, “but Tongo – I had to leave my husband. There was no time to bring him with us on Kostas and…”
“And why should I care about another Fleet Herbert?” Rad snapped.
Sulu didn’t have to be cruising to sense the annoyance in her when Ruth replied, “Because that Fleet Herbert’s name is Spock. You remember him, don’t you?”
“Spock?” Rad repeated, then gave Ruth a slow once-over. “He married an Antari?” A grin cracked his features. “Well, I guess he reached even more than we thought he did.”
“Precisely,” Ruth said. “Which is why I want to see if I can contact him. I want to let him know what’s happening here. I know he’ll want to be a part of it.”
“If you can get him away from that Great Herbert, Kirk,” Paget put in with all the disdain he could muster.
The Catullan’s eyes were veiled and wary. “How do you propose to do that without revealing where we are, sister?”
“Del can rig a scrambler,” Ruth answered, repeating what had been said on the Shambala.
Tongo glanced across the bay to where the engineer was being petted and tended to like some sultan in his seraglio. “I don’t want to take him away from his contact,” he said, but there was a flicker of resentment in his voice.
“That’s cool, Gypsy and Cobra here can…” Sulu began and had to stifle a snort of amusement when Rad’s eyes returned to him so fast the Catullan nearly got whiplash. “… modify one of your communications channels.” He let his eyes gleam at the young man. “Of course, that’s gonna leave me with nothing to do…”
“Roger said you haven’t seen the rest of the base,” Tongo put in, his eyes shining like a puppy’s. “I’d love to show you around, brother.”
“Is it settled then?” Ruth asked. “Can I try to see if Spock can still chime?”
“I’ll tell Chione to take you to one of the communications relays,” Rad said. Ruth smiled, giving the One sign.
Before moving toward the group around DelMonde, Rad murmured to Sulu, “I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be here,” Sulu promised.
“You do that too well, Roy,” Ruth frowned when the Catullan was out of earshot.
“Hell, no, Spike, he does it just well enough,” Paget countered.
“As long as I don’t throw up, I’ll be fine,” Sulu said. “And by the way, thanks for letting him know that we’re a ménage a trois,” he added to Sakura and Jeremy.
Sakura hugged him tightly, and Jeremy pulled them both into a shared embrace. “Can’t very well let him think that you’re available for one-on-one, can we?” he grinned. Sulu was suddenly kissing him, and Jeremy almost pulled away before he realized Rad had stepped up behind him.
“See you later, lover,” Sulu said, just loud enough to carry. He gave Sakura an equally warm kiss. “And you too, baby.”
Sakura giggled, then leaned forward, also kissing Jeremy.
“And that completes the set,” Paget said, as though that were a ritual goodbye between them. He stepped away from Sulu, taking Sakura’s hand.
“This is Chione,” Tongo said, clearly warring with both arousal and the never-felt-by-Sevrinites jealousy. The blonde with the pony-tail curtsied, giggling. “She’ll get you what you need, and monitor the scrambler. If Fleet breaks it…”
“I’ll rip the wiring out of it myself,” Paget promised. He put his arm around Ruth’s shoulders. “Come on, darlin’ let’s see if we can get through the Vulcan bullshit,” he said.
Sulu made it a point to watch as they walked away, then turned his attention to Tongo. “Fleet was just so stiff, man…” he mused.
“No need to worry about that here,” Rad promised. He too, glanced after the other officers. “I only hope they can truly transcend.”
“They will, brother,” Sulu assured. “They do.”
“That isn’t true of everyone that came here with you,” the Catullan said.
“Do we need to talk about that now, Tongo?” the helmsman asked softly.
Rad blinked at him, the puppy-dog look returning. “No, of course not… Sulu,” he tried the name out.
Sulu leaned close to him. “I prefer Kam,” he murmured.
Tongo shivered. “I like that. It’s – strong. Centered.”
If you only knew, Sulu thought, but made himself smile. “Let’s have a look around, brother.”
“It’s not much,” Lace said apologetically as she ushered Daffy into the cabin she and Roger shared.
The room wasn’t significantly larger than Gollub’s quarters on the Enterprise. Lace had chosen to decorate in her namesake fabric, making it seem quite homey in comparison to the standard Loonie décor. The cabin contained another surprisingly conventional feature.
“Am I seeing things? Or are those….” Daffy put a hand over her heart as if shocked by the sight. “… chairs?”
Lace grinned sheepishly as Roger settled into a big black monstrosity. “He’s got a bad back.”
“Oy,” Daffy sighed, settling into a matching recliner opposite him. After two weeks of sitting on pillows, this unattractive but oh so functional specimen of 23rd century seating technology felt like a throne. “If you guys could forget your principles for five seconds, a doctor could probably clear that up for you.”
“It’s not that we deny the validity of the medical arts,” Roger said, taking a small blue glass bong off the low table between them and loading it from a woven bowel. “We reject the societal pressure that compels us to permit ourselves to be turned into cyborgs just to avoid a little discomfort.”
“And we do have chiropractors and herbalists,” Lace put in, retrieving a bottle of wine from a shelf. When she removed one, Daffy realized that Lace had strung her colorful wine glasses into a webbing and had them doing double duty as a garland.
“Thank God for the herbalists,” Daffy said as she gratefully accepted the bong from Roger.
He smiled. “I think you’ll get along with them.”
Gollub blinked.
“Uh…They didn’t assign her to the lab,” Lace informed her lover carefully, as she handed him a glass.
Stupid Roger looked surprised. “Oh?”
“They must be full up, “ Lace reasoned, pouring another glass. “or in between big jobs, or…”
“Or my bastard ex-boyfriend’s bitch girlfriend just decided she’d rather see me choosing between scrubbing pots or scrubbing toilets,” Daffy suggested.
“She got food prep or housekeeping,” Lace explained quietly.
Roger shrugged philosophically. “There are no unimportant jobs in a commune.”
“Yeah,” Daffy replied, accepting the glass Lace offered. “But there are jobs that don’t involve wearing a hairnet.”
“It’s not that bad,” Lace consoled.
“It’s not that good,” Daffy differed.
“Irina probably had nothing to do with the decision.”
“Probably?”
“She wouldn’t do something like that,” Lace said more definitely.
“Why not?”
“Because that would mean that she had made a decision arising from a motivation of jealousy or possessiveness,” Stupid Roger explained.
“No shit.”
“Oh, but you don’t understand how wrong that would be,” Lace said, curling up next to the arm of Roger’s chair.
Daffy rolled her eyes. “I think I’m gonna find out.”
“No, it’s that negative emotions like jealousy are an anathema to us,” Roger clarified. “We’ve tried to eradicate them from our life here.”
Lace nodded. “Dr. Sevrin used to say that jealousy was the chain that bound us into the slavery of conventional morality.”
“Yeah.” Gollub was unimpressed. “Ever wonder if it’s just coincidence that it always seems to be unattractive older men who come up with these philosophies that allow them to sleep with an unlimited number of attractive younger women?”
Stupid Roger snorted. “Like Ruis Calvario?”
There was silence as the two women turned to look at him. It was as if he’d reached out and managed to slap them both.
Daffy recovered first. “And what a prince he turned out to be.”
Lace looked down into her wine glass. “It’s hard not to be cynical,” she said softy.
Gollub was surprised to see something that looked like regret on Stupid Roger’s face.
“If anyone does a good job of that,” he said, coming perilously close to an apology, “it’s you, Lace.”
She tried to smile and failed. “That doesn’t mean it’s not hard.”
“So,” Daffy said, casting about for something to lighten the mood. “What’s there to do in the evenings at Mr. and Mrs. Roger’s?
“I don’t know.” Roger pursed his thin lips and examined the cabin carefully for an interval that seeming designed to assure his companions that he had exhausted all other possibilities before suggesting. “We could have sex.”
Daffy shuddered, then fixed her gaze on the flower that was painted on Lace’s thigh. “That’s cute,” she said.
Lace looked down. “Yeah,” she grinned. “We get silly sometimes.”
Daffy considered. It’s certainly better than Stupid Roger’s stupid suggestion, she thought. “You got any paints here?” she asked.
The ex-Clavist looked surprised. “Sure, but… you want…?”
“Why not? It’ll be fun, right?”