From: "Nora Rivkis"
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 15:12:59 -0400
Subject: Re: USS CHESAPEAKE: Highway to trouble
SD 90413.2040
> There was a moment silence. It felt good. Whatever he had landed
> on, it felt nice, and soft, just like - like - no, it couldn't be ! He
> opened his eyes. Yes, it was. His face was buried in a womans bosom.
>
> "I must have died and gone to heaven.", he remarked to no-body in
> particular, even though he was not a Christian. Then he noticed the face
> of the woman he had fallen on. "Don't tell me this is The Other Place ?",
> he said, getting up. Considering the snarl his cushion displayed, perhaps
> a quick escape was advised.
>
> He looked around. He was surrounded by a lot of naked women in a
> shower room.
> That was good. They don't looked very happy. That was bad. And one of
> them was holding a knife. That was a crisis. He wondered for a moment
> where a naked woman could get a knife from, then decided he didn't really
> want to know.
Galia fought the terror that her rational mind called stupid and
all her training called cowardice. It was one unarmed man; some
idiot who'd pressed his luck spying and been caught. Half of her
wanted to castrate him on the spot; half wanted to curl up and
scream.
Andersen had been one unarmed man. He had liked it when she
curled up and screamed. Galia's hand tightened on the knife, but
one of T'sharet's women was already handling the situation.
> Before he could say anything to defuse the situation, or before he
> could spot an exit, a naked arm had slung itself around his neck, and was
> unpleasantly squeezing. Despite being pressed against a naked womans body
> he found it little pleasant. Perhaps the fact that he was having trouble
> breathing might have had something to do with it.
>
> "Been perving around a bit, haven't we ?", a harsh voice hissed
> into his left ear.
>
> "No, I've - gasp been looking -gasp for a bunny.", he gasped.
*A what?* She'd never heard that particular term for what he'd
been doing before.
> "Bunny ?", a quiet, slightly tearful voice said, and the woman
> with the knife stepped forward. She looked at the knife as if she didn't
> know where it came from, and she looked at him in a way - he frowned. He
> was no expert on body language, but somehow her face reminded him of
> something. If only he knew what... Then it hit him. Her eyes were full
> of fear. That was new. People had looked at him with contempt, anger,
> hatred, pity or amusement, but never, ever, with fear. And he knew what
> fear could do. It could make people dangerous. This woman looked as if
> she knew how to handle a knife. They all did, in fact.
>
> "I didn't mean it the way it sounded.", Oz said quickly. "I lost
> a lab rabbit, and - look, there it is !"
Lab rabbit? What would a lab rabbit be doing down here?
And Galia nearly broke down in tears, as chaos erupted
around her all at once and she realized instantly that the
officer had simply been saying the most outrageous thing
he could think of and she'd fallen for it. At home they would
have had her next four home leaves for that kind of mistake.
In battle, it would mean her life, if she were lucky. If not, the
lives of a few of her men.
> Everybody looked, including the woman holding him. She relaxed her grip
> slightly, and he used that moment to twist out of her grip and bolt
> towards the door. The women reacted, faster than he had thought, but not
> fast enough. He managed to dodge the hands that tried to stop him and
> threw himself through the open door of the showerroom. He collided with a
> naked female Vulcan who was just ready to go into the shower. She barely
> budged, while Oz soared backwards and ended up on the floor, water raining
> from the shower and the women closing in.
Galia had seen enough. T'sharet could hold him far better than
she could, who was shaking, and covering herself with her arms
so he would not see the scars on her breasts that were long since
gone anyway through reconstructive skin grafts. She ducked back
into the main barracks, grabbed her com pin, and called, "David!!
Trouble in women's quarters. Under control. Give us ten minutes,
then get in here."
> "Oh my. I just hope I won't have nightmares.", Oz told the women.
> "This could be really damaging to my psyche, you know.
> Look, stop ! Oh. Help. Heeelp.
> HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEElLLLLLLPPPP!!!"
T'sharet looked on impassively, unconcerned with her own nakedness,
while four of the women expertly tied Oz to a doorknob, ankles bound
tightly enough to hurt, wrists yanked behind him in a position that would
easily dislocate something if he were stupid enough to try to move. "You
heard Lt. Halivni," she said calmly to the women. "Szabo, Teyk'hal,
Andress, Osaku, watch him; Li'av, Fiannic, get their phasers for them.
The rest of you, get dressed. First four to be finished, change places with
his guards. Full uniforms and fully armed, all of you; the Lieutenant is
coming."
Oz wasn't going anywhere for the moment. It hurt enough just
staying still. Maybe the Marine commander would be more under-
standing than his troops.
Maybe not. The women scurried to obey -- all except for the four
with phasers trained on him and eyes glittering with hatred and a
mystifying sort of... he didn't know what. Resignation? Bitterness?
Not quite. As though they had once had a question, and saw in him
the answer they'd expected all along.
The dark woman with the knife and the frightened eyes was
first dressed, and calmer when she was. She took the phaser with
a few words in a language Oz didn't know, from one of the two humans
among his guards. Alone among the women, except for the Vulcan
who had issued orders -- and flung him across the room -- she did
not look at him with hatred now. Only a strange fire so fierce it took
Oz a minute to identify it as pride, and realize it was all that was
keeping her stable.
Well, she was the one holding the phaser. On the whole, Oz
preferred her stable.
By the time the door chime rang, all the women were in uniform.
Oz looked nearly as disreputable as they all thought him, sopping
wet and tied to the door of the shower room. The Vulcan called,
"Enter," just as the door slid open anyway. The man who strode
in was better armed than the women and seemed tense enough
to use any of it on a hairtrigger. Oz breathed very quietly.
"Galia, T'sharet; what's the trouble?" David's eyes flickered to the
man tied to the door, but his attention stayed on his lieutenants.
Galia tried to get her voice working and failed. Smoothly, so smoothly
that it took close attention to notice the protectiveness behind her
Vulcan calm, T'sharet took over for her. "This man fell out of the
airshaft into the shower room, sir. At an inopportune moment. We
had little choice but to assume he had chosen the moment and the
location deliberately, and act accordingly."
Oz started to protest, "I was just chasing a lab rabbit..." but the MCO
threw him a look that made Oz feel lucky the man hadn't killed him yet.
"Shut up. I didn't ask you."
Oz shut up.
David turned to Galia, murmured in Hebrew, "Are you all right?" The
woman gulped, nodded a little. Two of the other women came near,
hesitantly, and touched her shoulders as though they were touching
a wound.
Leaving her to them, David asked T'sharet, "Anyone hurt?"
"No. Not even the intruder. My troops behaved with great restraint,
sir."
"I can tell. He's still got his balls attached. It's more restraint than
I would have used."
NRPG: Back over to you, O'Greach. Add in whatever you want
from here. David's not about to let you go with a warning, but
whether he hauls you to the XO or lets the women carve nasty
names into your skin on the spot depends on how well you
handle the situation. ;-)
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