The Way Lovers Do

Posted on Oct 21, 2017 @ 3:05am by Captain Michael Turlogh Kane

Mission: Fear Itself

"THE WAY LOVERS DO"

(Continued from "Food, Fun, and Festivities"
********************************
********************************

Captain's log, supplemental - I feel great.

*********************************

Location: Starbase 56, edge of the Neutral Zone
Stardate: [2.17]1020.2305
Scene: Ellie's Quarters


Michael Turlogh Kane was balls-out naked in front of some woman he'd met only a few hours ago, and he didn't care. Truth be told, he'd spent most of those few hours sans clothes, only leaving Ellie's bed to get a drink of water and to take a long shower. Now, after another vigorous bout of love-making, they were lying side-by-side on the bed next to the viewport, smiling out at the stars.

"I'm ready again," grinned Ellie.

Kane looked at her sidelong. "I don't think I have anything left in the tank, woman. You've drained me."

"Try anyway."

Kane rolled his eyes. "Once more unto the breach." He embraced her, but stopped suddenly. "That thing you mentioned last night - you being one-quarter Deltan."

Ellie looked up at him. She was small and petite, and he felt that if he squeezed her too hard, he might hurt her. "What about it?"

"Is it still working now? Like, am I still under its influence?"

"Ah." Ellie put her head on his shoulder, and it found the hollow perfectly. "I doubt it, no. Believe it or not, I exude only a fraction of the pheromones that a full-blood Deltan puts out."

"So my feelings are my own again. You've always known about your ability?"

"It doesn't kick in until puberty. My teenage years were pretty intense until I learned to live with it, like my mother and grandmother before me. When I was younger, it was a great way to get boys I liked." She smiled.

Kane flicked her nose with his finger. "There are no boys in this bed."

"That's for sure," she winked.

"Ellie, this is all so bizarre for me." She looked up at him, and Kane paused while he tried to find the right words. "I've never met anyone who I clicked with like this. I thought it was because you were part Deltan, but maybe we're just - "

"Made for each other?"

Kane frowned. "Bizarre, right?"

"Not really, Mike. I feel the same way. I thought you were a hottie when I saw you first four months ago, and when you approached me in your ship's lounge it was like - "

"We'd met before," finished Kane. "Yes, that's it. I've made a career of keeping my distance from anyone wearing a Starfleet uniform, but you were different. I can't explain it."

Ellie poked him and made a faux worried face. "Maybe an all-powerful external force has thrown us together! Maybe this is all some illusion set down on a computer screen somewhere! Maybe some god-like puppetmaster is writing everything you say and do and you don't control anything in your life! Did you ever think about that, hmm?"

Kane scoffed. "He'd be a big fat nerd with no friends who spends his weekends thinking about what I get up to. His arse would be numb from sitting down writing out the particulars of my life."

"But maybe he made me for you," smiled Ellie. "Or you for me. Maybe, in his own way, he's kind."

Kane sat up. He felt like smoking, and for a moment, missed the taste of those Capellan cigarettes he used to smoke in his youth. He thought of the last twenty years of conflict and death and horror and danger, and shuddered. "Yeah, well, if you ask me, he's probably a fucking sadist." He took her hand and kissed it, heart swelling with emotion. "Let's assert our independence in the face of the universe, Ellie. You and me. Let's keep seeing each other no matter what happens. We control our own lives, nobody else, and I want you in mine."

"Me too."

They shared a moment that made stars burst with joy, then Ellie's communicator chirped. She sighed, and rolled over. "Kalani here."

[[Solorzano here. Report to Ops, Commander.]]

Ellie made a face, but answered sweetly. "Acknowledged." She looked down at Kane, whose hands were roaming over her body, getting a final grope in. "Duty calls."

Kane took his hands away. "I'd better get back to the Phoenix."

They got up and dressed, kissed their goodbyes, and their paths diverged again.

************************************************

Scene: Starbase Ops


Hector Solorzano held up the box and ran his eyes over it. It didn't look like much - it wasn't too big or too small, wasn't inlaid with jewels or precious metal, and definitely looked like it had seen better days. But it was the box that Ezra Greer had been holding while he tore his own face off and died of shock and blood loss right in front of Hector's eyes. The box came from the King Midas, where Budo Pumbular had clawed out his own eyes and vented the atmosphere out of his own ship.

Two horrifically violent deaths, and this little box was the only link between them. Was it valuable? It didn't look to be so, but Hector knew that looks meant nothing. It might be the only one of its kind, and that meant that Budo Pumbular might definitely kill for it - but would Ezra Greer?

He slotted the box into a wall-mounted sensor booth. "Computer, activate." He had a look around - Ops was quiet right now. Admiral Stiles was in her office making a call to the Phoenix, but most of the senior officers were either still partying or sleeping if off in their quarters.

The sharp feminine voice immediately responded. [[Working.]]

"Scan contents of booth alpha and send a readout to my work station." As he sat down at his console, the nearby turbolift doors opened with a mechanical grating, and deposited Ellie Kalani into Ops. "Hey, Ellie."

"Hi, Heck. You needed me?"

Hector threw a thumb at the scanning booth. "Something the search team located on the King Midas. There are no other available senior engineers, so you get to be my second pair of eyes." He looked at her sharply. "Speaking of - you look tired. Did you sleep alright?"

Ellie nodded, but her eyes were sparkling. "So what have you got?"

Hector gestured to his readout. "Sensor booth alpha. Computer says it's a late nineteenth century music box, called a polyphon."

Ellie lifted her head. "Computer, what is a polyphon music box?"

The computer's voice answered immediately, like it was waiting for the question. [[Polyphon - a disc-playing music box powered by a hand-wound clockwork motor.]]

"It plays music?" asked Hector. "How?"

[[The motor of a polyphon powers the movement of a series of plucking instruments, which are connected to a sound board and several pre-tuned notation keys. When the disc is inserted, the plucking instruments are triggered by the jagged holes on the playing disc, and they in turn strike the notation keys. In this way, music is created.]]

"Wait, wait," said Hector. "You mean you need to insert a disc in it and turn it on?"

[[Affirmative.]]

Ellie looked at him. "It sounds like an early form of gramophone technology. Each disc would have the pattern for a different piece of music cut into it. When you wanted to listen to a new piece of music, you'd take out the disc and insert a new one. Don't you know any history, Heck?"

Hector shrugged. "History is boring." He pointed to his display. "Says here that the box was likely constructed in a city called Leipzig, in a former country called Germany, about four-and-a-half centuries ago. And look here - there are a series of markings on the interior of the lid."

Ellie squinted at the holographic representation on Hector's screen. "People of that era at a picnic. Huh." She moved to the sensor booth and took the box out. "It's pretty light. Has seen a lot of use, too, going by the scratches and dings along its bodywork."

Hector shrugged. "The stiff on the King Midas likely owned it. It was recovered by Ezra Greer's team last night when they searched the freighter. And then Greer ended up dead with it in his hand."

Ellie frowned. "One of your people died over this thing?"

Hector nodded grimly.

"I'm sorry, Heck. I hadn't heard." Ellie wound up the clockwork motor and laid the box down on Hector's console. From out of the box came a series of merry, jingling little notes, a mischievous little ditty that danced over their ears. "Do you know this music?"

Hector shook his head. "Computer, identify the music."

[[Music is 'Peter and the Wolf', by Sergei Prokofiev.]]

Hector shrugged again. "Never heard of him or it." He opened the lid of the box. "Oh, I see what you mean now about there being a disc."

Ellie ran her fingers over the metal disc inside. There were cuts along the surface that scratched her fingertips. "These jagged bits are cut in a certain pattern, you see? The music box plucks them and makes the music."

"Gotcha." Hector reached in and tried to pull out the disc, but it was stuck fast. He lifted it up to eye level, but the cold metal disc looked like it was fused directly into the workings of the box. "It won't come out."

"Let me try." Ellie tried to pull the disc out, to no avail. She frowned. "It's like it was built that way."

"Built for only one disc? That doesn't make sense."

"No," Ellie agreed. "It doesn't."

Hector was getting tired of the thing. "Well, I'm out of ideas. Do you want to take it to Engineering and see if your people can analyse it further?"

Ellie thought about it for a moment, and her eyes lit up. "The Phoenix's chief engineer is supposed to be a bit of a genius. Malin-Argo - have you heard of him?"

Hector frowned. "Uh, I don't think so. Go ahead and knock yourself out if you think he can help. I'll tell the Admiral. Hey, what's the grin for?"

Ellie tucked the box under her arm and moved to the turbolift. "Oh, no reason. See you later, Heck."

Hector watched the turbolift door close on her smile.

***************************************

Location: USS Phoenix, docked at the Starbase
Scene: Captain's ready room - deck 1, saucer section -> Engineering


Michael Turlogh Kane was engaged in conversation with Admiral Stiles, and to be fair, he was doing a good job of paying attention given the fact that his thoughts kept veering sideways. Ellie, naked and moving underneath him, whispering in the heat of her passion - it was distracting.

Good thing there was only a skeleton crew on the bridge right now. Much of the ship's crew was officially still on R&R, and had dispersed themselves across the Starbase, and with no orders coming from Starfleet for now, they could afford to let off some steam. Kane didn't begrudge them one iota. Besides, the longer the Phoenix remained at Starbase 56, the more he would see of -

He was doing it again. He sighed inwardly and forced himself to listen to Admiral Stiles.

{{I trust Doctor Stell implicitly,}} she was saying. She was sitting in her office on the Starbase, and a look of general concern was on her face. {{His autopsies on both Budo Pulmonar and Lieutenant Greer both indicate a strong probability of some sort of neurological trauma in the minutes preceding their deaths. There is no rational explanation for what both men did to themselves - whatever happened, it must have been enough for them to take leave of their senses.}}

Kane shook his head. "Are you working on the assumption that there's a link?"

{{Too hard to say right now. The good news is that we're not busy at the moment - the Phoenix is the only starship docked here right now, and will be until the starship Misaka arrives next week. I can put more resources on this investigation.}}

"What have you found so far?"

{{The only link we've got is a music box that was found aboard the King Midas. It was in Lieutenant Greer's hands when he died. We're still looking into it. As a matter of fact, I believe that one of my officers - Lieutenant Commander Kalani - is bringing it to the Phoenix right now in the hopes of consulting with your chief engineer."

"Ellie?" said Kane, then recovered. "Ellie Kalani?"

{{Yes. Do you know her?}}

Kane thought quickly. "We met last night at the reception in the Vulgar Tribble."

{{Ah. Well, I must get back to work. Stiles out.}}

The desktop viewscreen winked off, and Kane got to his feet, smiling inwardly as he quickly walked out onto the bridge. He gave a nod to Byte at Ops and made for the turbolift, stepping inside as fast as he dared. "Engineering."

The turbolift powered down through the decks of the ship, and Kane chuckled to himself. Seeing Ellie again so soon was fate. Maybe there was something in her crazy theory of a benevolent all-powerful force controlling his life.

The turbolift doors opened fifty decks down, and no sooner had he stepped out of the turbolift then he saw Ellie standing twenty feet to his right down the corridor. She was dwarfed by the bizarre sight of Chaucer, who was dressed in a white toga like an ancient Roman lizard. As he approached them, they both turned to face him - Ellie smiled, Chaucer stood up straight. He could see a wooden box in Ellie's hands.

"Commander Kalani," said Kane formally, carefully.

"Captain Kane," she replied with a smile.

[[My name is Chaucer,]] trilled the Gorn's vox.

Kane looked at him up and down. The toga was as big as a queen-sized duvet. "Report, Ensign."

Ellie stepped forward. She held up the box. "I was looking for Commander Malin-Argo and hoped that the Ensign could direct me to him."

Kane nodded at the box. "I've just been speaking to Admiral Stiles about that artifact," he stated. "Ensign Chaucer, is Commander Malin-Argo on duty at present?"

[[No.]] The great lizard licked its lips.

Kane looked at Ellie. "We're running on a skeleton crew at the minute, Commander Kalani. I doubt if there are more than a dozen engineers across all three Engineering decks. If you give the box to Ensign Chaucer, he'll ensure that Commander Malin-Argo receives it as soon as possible. Won't you, Ensign?"

[[Yes.]] Chaucer's vox grated out the word.

"What will I do, then?" asked Ellie innocently, eyes all a-twinkle.

Kane looked at her, trying to ignore Chaucer's gaze as the Gorn looked back at forth at the two of them, inscrutable compound eyes staring at them. "Would you, uh, care for a tour of the Phoenix, Commander Kalani?"

"I'd be delighted, Captain Kane." Ellie passed the box to Chaucer. "Here you go, big guy."

[[My name is Chaucer,]] stated the vox, but neither Captain Kane nor Commander Kalani were listening. They both walked to the nearest turbolift, looking into each other's eyes, leaving Chaucer, a Gorn in a toga, alone in the corridor with the box.

Chaucer pondered the intricacies of human mating rituals for a moment, then lumbered away down the corridor into the main Engineering deck, his big meaty hands enclosed around the box, thick green legs stomping out a tattoo that only barely covered up the giggling coming from the nearby turbolift.

****************************************
****************************************

NRPG: Yes, giggling. The way lovers do