Reap the Whirlwind

“That’s all for now. Tell Neil and the boys I miss you all, and I hope to visit you again on Mars very soon. Take care, and write back when time allows and the mood strikes. Love, Dad.”

He tapped a few keys on the data slate and transmitted the letter into the station’s queue for outgoing comm traffic. In a few hours it would likely meet with the approval of the censors and be on its way to Mars, one of thousands of messages bundled in a massive burst of unclassified data traffic leaving Vanguard. In a matter of hours, Jane would get the message, maybe at home or in her office between patients. Unlike his sons, Ely and Noah, Jane had followed him into medicine, though she had pointedly declined a career in Starfleet in order to open her own private practice in the rapidly growing Martian city of Cydonia. It was there she had met her husband, Neil, and where they were raising their sons, James and Seth.

As always, thinking of his children and grandchildren made him smile. That’s a good way to end the day, he decided. He got up from the couch and shambled stiffly off to bed. Tomorrow would be busy; he needed all the rest he could get.

The Starship Sagittarius was coming home.

A

It was still early, before 0600 station time. At the foot of the bed, Lieutenant Commander T’Pry

“Did you sleep well, my love?” Sandesjo asked, even knowing that T’Pry

Pulling back her long sable hair and tying it into a ponytail, T’Pry

Sandesjo sat up and let the sheets bundle in her lap. Watching T’Pry

With one boot on, T’Pry

“Because of the Sagittarius.”

“Yes,” T’Pry

News of the scout vessel’s return to Starbase 47 had been buzzing for a couple of weeks. The ship’s recall from a remote area of the Taurus Reach had been ordered not long after the destruction of Palgrenax. Though ship movements continued to be classified for members of the general public and perso

Standing up, T’Pry

“Perhaps you’d let me spend a night in your quarters sometime,” Sandesjo said, her tone blatantly suggestive. “Unless you’re ashamed to be seen with me.”

Subtly lifting her left eyebrow, T’Pry

“Don’t be fooled, my love,” Sandesjo said with a flirtatious leer. “Just because I look human doesn’t mean I’m as fragile as one. Qo’noS has its share of heat.”

T’Pry

“I think I can handle it,” Sandesjo said. To her dismay, rather than continue their repartee, T’Pry

Slowly, T’Pry

“I always want you to stay,” Sandesjo said. “You never do.”

Raising her steeply arched eyebrows, T’Pry

“A

In a surprisingly sharp tone, T’Pry

Hearing T’Pry

Finally recovering her voice, she said, “If, when we are…alone together, you wish to call me Lurqal, I would not object.”

After considering that for a moment, T’Pry

“Yes, it is,” Sandesjo said, relieved to be able to speak plainly and without the qualifying preambles of diplomatic discourse. “Though I’d really like to know what our relationship is, exactly.”

Cocking her head slightly, T’Pry

“I don’t know,” Sandesjo said. “All of it? You’ve been sharing my bed for months, but I still don’t know what to call you. My girlfriend? My lover? What am I to you? Just another intelligence asset? Something else? Or am I just your whore?”

The conversation seemed to make T’Pry

“Such a nice way of putting it,” Sandesjo said bitterly. “Did you start sleeping with me to turn me into a double agent? Or was that just an added perk?”

Unfazed, T’Pry

Stung, Sandesjo looked away for a moment. Turning back to face T’Pry

With a haughty and dismissive mien, T’Pry

Sandesjo turned her head slightly, so that her lips barely brushed T’Pry

She leaned forward to kiss T’Pry