BEST ORIG. SERIES SLASH STORY

Title: BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

Author: Christinecgb

Category: TOS

Code: Yeoman Colt/ Number One

Rating: NC - 17

This story is based on the two Starfleet women who found themselves in the cage with Captain Pike in The Cage/ The Menagerie.

Written for the Femme Fuh-q Fest Round II. Yay! - http://www.oocities.org/femme_fuhq_fest/

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BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

by Christinecgb

I don't think about it anymore. I have managed to put it behind me. Leave it where it rightly belongs, in the past.

When I do remember it takes me by surprise. Did that really happen? I think it could be a dream. I have dreams like that. They are hazed or seemingly far off, like looking through distorted glass.

I don't have evidence that it happened. I think I should have taken something to remind me of her. I should have asked for a lock of her hair or something personal from her belongings. Would she have given it to me?

I should have said goodbye.

It did happen, but it was overshadowed by events that preceded it and events that took place afterwards. So it's easy not to think about because I don't think she's thinking about it.

I imagine she thinks about him. The Captain. I imagine she remembers him as being strong and beautiful, the way I remember him.

Because he did choose her in the end as I knew he would.

And she chose him right back.

*

I think it was only a week after we'd been to Talos. Maybe more. It didn't feel like it we had returned to routine yet. She was still regarding me with her narrowing eyes and reproachful stare that made me feel so damn uncomfortable only weeks into my first commission.

We would hide from her when we could. All the juniors did. We'd hear 'Number One to Engineering' and we'd all avoid engineering until we could be sure she'd and gone.

Not that she ever raised her voice, not that she ever was unfair or harsh. She just looked down at us from her elegantly formed nose and silently intimidated the hell out of us.

And then I was summoned to the briefing room. At first I thought it might have something to do with the Talosians. We'd been debriefed repeatedly on the incident and we'd been sworn to secrecy as well. My last session with Starfleet intelligence was only a day ago. They told me it would be my last but I wouldn't have been surprised if I heard from them again.

Only it was just her and Captain Pike sitting at the meeting table closer than I'd ever seen a Captain and First Officer sit. If they both leaned forward a centimeter or so, their heads would touch.

They called her Number One and so we did too, but not to her face. Officially she had been introduced to us as Lieutenant Olsen, but we liked calling her Number One. She was just like that. A designation rather than a name.

The Captain looked up when he heard me come in.

"Sit down Yeoman Colt."

I did as I was told and sat at the far end of the table.

"Yeoman, what do you know about the Argus Colonies?"

"Very little Sir," I answered honestly. Federation politics was not my area of expertise. I was a Security Officer, a combat soldier. Trained in tactical planning and strategy. I would only have heard of the colonies if they represented a threat to the Federation and to my knowledge they did not.

She began the briefing.

"Nine years ago Argus Six seceded from the Federation seeking religious independence".

That I did know. They were a peaceful group intent on pursuing a strange religion imported from the history of the Slarians in a nearby system. What I didn't know and what she began to inform me was that the Slarian sect had grown in Slarar and had begun to appropriate some of the closer Argus colonies. Something of a civil war had broken out in the Argus colonies and we were delivering medical supplies to the non-Slarian strongholds.

If the mission had seemed unusual or lacking in protocol it did not occur to me to say comment. I barely understood the Prime Directive, I left that up to my superior officers, and I did what they told me.

I nodded and kept quiet and she told me that Captain Pike had asked her to take the supplies herself along with one security officer. She had chosen me. To this day I still can't conclusively say that revenge was not her motivation.

If she had expected trouble she certainly showed no indication, but it was a war zone. Most people would choose their companions in a war zone very carefully and I figure that even for the seeming simplicity of the procedure she must have given it some thought.

But what exactly was she thinking?

*
We left almost immediately. She continued to brief me on the way to the transporter room. I had arms full of medical equipment and supplies and I wasn't entirely sure of what some of it was. If it had been weapons I probably would not have been surprised.

She told me we would meet a contact at our beam down point and we would hand the supplies over there, assist in the construction of equipment and instruct in its use.

We took our positions and in moments we were standing in a clearing surrounded by our equipment and supplies.

The first thing I noticed was that the man in front of me held a phaser pointed directly at me. I immediately went for my own phaser. I'm a fast draw and a good combat soldier and I was in the ready position on arrival but I was nowhere near fast enough to hit my assailant before he hit me.

On the way down I noticed the Lieutenant had managed to get a round off before they got her. Later I considered that her reaction must have been instantaneous with her assessment of the situation. One fluid thought running into motion. It was not to be the last time I thought she was incredible.

*

When I woke up, she was patting my cheek. She did it with regularity to her movement. Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap.

"Yeoman Colt."

I opened my eyes. She hovered above me with one hand still resting on my cheek.

"What happened?" I asked.

"We were attacked. I expect we were betrayed."

I sat up.

"Where are we?"

"We are in a cell. Unfortunately I don't know how long we have been here. Our captors are not very
forthcoming."

My stomach growled. I figured I'd certainly been here long enough to be hungry.

I should have been scared. When the Talosians shut us in a cage and read our thoughts I was worried. They seemed so powerful and I felt so small.

It was different now. She radiated knowing and assurance. She made me think that this was just an
interlude. An obstacle to be overcome before we went on to our next adventure.

I believed in her.

"How do you feel Yeoman Colt?"

I felt a little shaky. I expected it to pass.

"Fine," I said, "a bit of a headache but otherwise fine."

She nodded.

"Good," she said.

"What do you suppose they want?" I asked, just trying to keep her talking. It was helping me think. Helping me get my mind off my aching head and sore body.

"I expect we are hostages. They will make ransom demands to the Enterprise, if they have not done so already. I expect they have not as the Enterprise would ask to see us before listening to demands."

"But they won't pay the ransom will they?"

"No. Starfleet Directive 224 section F states that we do not negotiate with terrorists. However Captain Pike will no doubt continue to maintain the illusion of negotiation until he can guarantee our safety."

"And what do we do in the mean time." I'm not patient. I don't expect that anyone locked in a cell with little to distract her attention is ever patient but I'm a person who acts rather than thinks. In emergency simulations I was a top student. A quick assessment of the situation and I was away. They like that in Starfleet.

But they value patience too. Tactically it's a valuable skill and I had very little.

"We wait," she said. Apparently she had it in abundance.

*

We passed the time playing a version of twenty questions. She asked me question after question about my family and my studies in the Academy. I gave her the incomplete version of my life story with a few elaborations thrown in to make the story more interesting than it was. I didn't really expect my Starefleet brat background with an uneventful childhood and a typical adolescence to hold her interest.

I told her about my prowess on the Starfleet track team. I'm small. I look like I would be the last person you'd want by your side in a fight, but it was my success on the track that brought me to the attention of the Starfleet Security Forces. I was strong, I was fast and I wasn't really excelling at any other field in the Academy. Perfect for the job.

She nodded at my story but failed to look impressed.

"Why did you join Starfleet?" I asked her.

She stared at a spot outside our cell, looking beyond the force field that held us in.

"I wished to travel," she said without blinking an eye. For a moment I thought she might have actually cracked a joke but she never cracked jokes. She was serious.

I guess it must have been one truth, out of many.

*

Eventually one our captors showed up. A small human man accompanied by two larger Slarians. I expected they were guards. The muscle. I don't imagine we looked like much of a threat but I was hungry and ready to tear down the force field with my hands if it were at all possible. The Lieutenant had begun to look tired for the first time since we got here.

I stood up as he approached. She immediately shot me a reproachful look so I kept quiet. She stood up slowly and faced our jailer.

"We need food," she said.

"You'll get it," he said.

"What do you plan to do with us?"

He shrugged callously.

"We had planned to ransom you but I've since learnt that Starfleet does not negotiate with terrorists."

Her face fell. I'd never seen her do that. She probably just realized as I did, that we had been
bugged all this time.

"But we can get what we want from other sources. Particularly if we offer you both as trade."

My eyes went wide. This was my first year out and not only had I been imprisoned in an alien zoo but I was now about to be sold into slavery. My mother spent forty years in Starfleet and now held a comfortable Admiralty. She never mentioned zoos or terrorists trading in live currency.

The human engaged a mechanism on the outside of our cell and we heard a small zap as the force field went down. He stepped inside and stood in front of me looking me over from head to toe.

I placed my feet firmly apart on the ground and kept an eye on Number One. If this was our chance I didn't want to miss it.

"How old are you?" he asked.

"Twenty-two," I answered.

"Hmmm… we'll tell them you're younger of course," he rested a hand against my cheek and then trailed it down my neck. When it continued down to the top of my breast I reacted instinctually. My hand flew up to grab his in a tight grip while I brought my knee hard into his groin. He tried to double over but I spun him around so that I twisted his arm behind him.

He screamed.

"Don't ever touch me again!" I hissed between clenched teeth. I didn't notice the other guards stepping forward until I felt his weapon hitting my shoulder and knocking me back against the wall.

Number One immediately jumped into action. She let fly with the kind of blow that I'd seen my body combat instructor attempt to teach us. Her full body weight was behind it and her face indicated her entire being was focused on its impact. The guard fell backwards.

Of course we were outnumbered, outgunned, outsized and destined to be overcome. It just didn't seem to have occurred to her. The second guard stepped forward and was swinging his weapon in a wide arc aiming straight for the Lieutenant's head. I heard a sickening crack as it connected. She fell down onto her knees and I was faced with a weapon pointing right at me.

The guard garbled something in Slarian. Our translators had been removed so I had no idea what he said. I assumed it was something like 'don't move' so I stood rooted to the spot.

My human assailant picked himself up off the floor and ushered himself out of our cell, reinstating the force field as he went. He took one last look at us both before he and the Slarians walked off. I guessed it would be a while before our request for food was met.


On the floor, the Lieutenant was on her knees holding her head in one hand. I bent down to examine her head and found it sticky with blood. Pushing her hair out of the way I inspected her cut. It didn't look deep but I suspected medical attention was not to be forthcoming either so I pulled off the top of my uniform and pressed it against her skull. I was left to brave our cool environment in my Starfleet issue tank top.

"You're going to have to hold this for a while," I said.

She nodded and replaced my hand with hers holding my uniform in place. She got up off her knees and went to sit against the wall.

"I may have concussion," she said, "you will need to keep me awake."

I nodded gravely. I had no intention of letting her slip into a coma after that display. It was senseless. Dangerous to both of us and yet she had stepped forward like a gladiator, like a warrior. I was awed and bewildered at the same time.

I sat down next to her.

"You're impulsive, Yeoman Colt," she said, her voice aching with the pain that was no doubt ringing in her head.

"Yeah," I said, and then added as an afterthought, "I'm sorry."

"You are forgiven."

We sat in silence for a while and then she spoke again.

"Yeoman Colt, do you recall what you said to the Captain when we were rescued from the Talosians?"

"Yes." How could I forget?

"You should not have said that to the Captain, Yeoman. You embarrassed him."

"I know."

"Did you expect him to answer?" Her head was bent slightly forward so she could rest her arm on her leg and lean her head into her hand. As a consequence, all her questions were directed at the floor. It contrasted sharply to the forthright and stiff Officer she was usually.

I shrugged. "Maybe…"

"Are you in love with the Captain Yeoman?"

I nearly laughed but thought better of it, considering the company I was in.

"No," I said, "were you?"

This time she turned to me slightly. Her hand held my sweater against the other side of her face. Blood had trickled onto her cheek. I wanted to wipe it off but I was transfixed by her one uncovered blue eye trained on me.

"The Talosians believed I was," she said.

"They believed I was too but I think they were wrong. They were wrong about many things," I paused and thought about the Talosians. They didn't know much. If they'd really known what was in our heads they wouldn't have had to ask Pike which one of us he wanted. I had wondered if they were just playing with us but then they should have known that Pike would absolutely refuse to play. I shrugged. " Maybe they saw I was fascinated by him. Most of us on the lower decks are. He's the Captain."

"They were unlike any other telepathic species I have known," she said, "unlike Vulcans or Betazoids."

It occurred to me that most people don't really know what Vulcan telepathy is like unless they've had intimate experience.

"Have you been in a mind-meld?" I asked.

"Yes. I grew up on the colony on Gorky-Three which was raided by pirates from the Orion Sector. I witnessed my parents' murder, which caused me great trauma. A Vulcan Doctor on the colony used a mind-meld to help me deal with the memory. I found the experience calming."

I stared at he with my mouth gaping slightly. It was a story I had never heard and yet it said everything.


"You should not feel sorry for me, " she said noticing my stare, "there are many who have not recovered from similar horrors."

"Is that why…" I faltered for the words, "Is that why you are…the way you are?"

She looked at me coolly for a few seconds before answering. As usual I could read little into her
stare.

"If you are referring to my controlled emotions and adherence to logic, it is true that I first learned
these attributes from that mind-meld. I have since studied Vulcan culture and mind control techniques. I find them beneficial as well as challenging."

There you have it, I thought, chalk and cheese as they say. My impetuousness and her stoicism. We couldn't have been more unalike.

Still, for some reason opposite seem to attract. I leant forward to wipe the blood that had trickled down her cheek. I left a red streak in its wake. It looked like tribal war paint. Still carried forward by impulse I leaned in closer and licked the blood from her cheek. She didn't move but carefully surveyed me with her icy blue eyes.

I moved my mouth to her lips and pressed against her. She didn't respond at first but after a few seconds had passed I felt her movement against mine. Gentle and hesitant.

When I pulled away her expression was unchanged. I lifted my hand up to her head and removed her hand holding the sweater so I could get a closer look at her cut. The blood had congealed somewhat.

"Are you drowsy?" I asked.

"No."

"Does it hurt?"

"The pain is not of consequence."

I brushed her hair back and wiped the blood off her face.

"It's a curious sensation," she said.

"Kissing?"

"Yes."

"Have you not done this before?" I asked incredulously.

"Of course. It is always curious. Tell me, Yeoman Colt, do you prefer to kiss women?"

"Yes." I shrugged. This was pretty common knowledge aboard the Enterprise, although probably not to her, or Captain Pike.

"Are you in love with me, Yeoman?"

I swallowed.

"Maybe," I whispered.

She leant forward and kissed me again. She was more insistent this time. I felt her hand on my shoulder caressing my skin. I lifted my hands so I could hold her face while I kissed her. I was mindful all the time of her injury and kissed her with a restraint I didn't feel.

She caressed my skin from my shoulder down my collarbone to the base of my neck.

She had the kind of touch that made me think she was trying to determine the exact nature of my skin. A laboured touch that felt each centimeter of me separately.

I wanted her to spend hours touching me this way but I mostly I wanted to do the same to her. Mindful of her head injury I lifted the tail of her uniform from her waist and ran my finger under the waist-band of her trousers. She was hot underneath. I suspected she was running a temperature. I pulled away from her momentarily to study her complexion. Admittedly she looked pale.

"Why did you stop?" she asked.

"I'm not sure you're well enough to do this."

"Yeoman, you promised to keep me awake."

For a moment I thought I saw the corners of her mouth turn slightly upwards. I may have been mistaken.

I went back to running my hands along her waist. I thought momentarily about the Slarian's bug and wondered whether they were spying on us as well. I glanced around the cell and saw nothing that could house a camera but then I didn't see a bug either. I shook off my inhibitions. They were about to get one hell of a show.

I eased my hand down the front her pants and let my fingers creep between her legs. She opened her them a little allowing me to slip my fingers inside her. She gasped and looked straight into my eyes.

It had been a joke down in the crew's quarters. The idea of Number One making love with her concealed passion. We made lewd comments about how we might put a smile on her face. We thought she was beautiful but we also thought it was a crime to waste that beauty on someone so unwilling to appreciate it.

We gravely misjudged her. Her eyes never left mine as I stroked her and in them I could see a passion so strong it was frightening to think of it all focused in one person.

When she came I kissed her and she cried into my mouth. She squeezed her legs together reflexively, holding my hand against her a little longer. She bucked slightly against me as I continued to stroke her where she was now extremely sensitive. She moaned a little as her breathing subsided and I eventually pulled my hand away. It was still wet and slick from her. I licked my fingers hoping to remember the taste, thinking, knowing that I would probably not get the chance to taste her again.

Wordlessly I returned to my position seated next to her against the wall. I felt her put her arm around me and she pulled my head onto her shoulder. She smelled like blood, sex and sweat and some perfume that I couldn't identify. It was an intoxicating mixture.

*

We had not been seated like that for long when the Slarian guards appeared at the entrance to our cell once more. They lowered the force field and motioned for us to stand. We did as we were asked and they nudged us to move with their weapons. One of them paused and moved the Lieutenant's hand away from her head to inspect her injury. After a cursory glance he motioned us on again.

We were only a few metres from the cell when we heard shouting weapons fire ahead. Our guards paused and began talking excitedly to each other. Something was up.

Three Starfleet Security Officers rounded the corner and aimed weapons at our captors. The Lieutenant and I instinctively dropped to the ground and a brief round of weapons fire resulted in our captors lying on the floor next to us, stunned.

The Captain was the next person we saw, tearing round the corner frantically with Spock in tow.

His eyes were instantly on her. He ran to her side on the ground completely disregarding protocol and embracing her. He surveyed her injury and turned to Spock.

"Let's get them out of here," he said.

"Spock to Enterprise. Seven to beam up."

And with that, we left the entire scene behind us.

*

I requested leave on the grounds of trauma one week after my return to the Enterprise. No one questioned the decision. I'd had a rough month.

The night before I left I waited in my room packing and reading and hoping, futilely, for her to come and say goodbye. When she didn't show I was angry but when I think of it now, I know it was inevitable. She knew there was no point prolonging any feeling between us. Goodbyes under such circumstances were illogical.

I heard some years later that they got married. I wondered what she was like as a wife. Whether she'd changed or whether Pike had decided to be with her whether she exhibited reciprocal emotions or not.

It was idle speculation. Nothing I would ever have the chance to verify in person.

Many years later I heard that Pike had been in a horrible accident and I thought of her again. He was severely debilitated. They said he'd disappeared, but I knew better.

The Newsfeeds referred to his wife as Admiral Louise Olsen-Pike. I didn't even think that she might have a first name. It didn't really suit her.

Olsen-Pike suited her. As if her name had predestined their attachment.

From the beginning they fascinated me. They were beautiful and strong. Brave and defiant in the face of impossible odds. I was placed in a cage with them once but I had the feeling even the Talosians were only looking at them.

I got a new posting on the USS Melbourne and became Chief of Security on the USS Pegusus only five years later.

Like I said, I don't think about it often but when I do it never quite seems real. If I want to, I can tell myself it never happened at all.

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