A HIGHER POWER
"Mister
Vanderberg, what is
this?" Spock fondled the nodule compulsively, running his
fingers
over the silky coarseness of its surface. His gaze took on a
far-away stare as he rolled the ball reflexively between his palms.
Kirk glanced up
sharply.
The other levels of his mind absently processed the miner's
response. Silicon nodules. There are a million of
them down
there. But his thoughts were on Spock. That voice,
that
look. Oh no! They had come to far and grown so much
since
those crazy, lustfilled early days. They wouldn't go back
now. They just couldn't.
"Thank you,
Mister
Vanderberg. We will need your complete cooperation," Kirk
responded mechanically to whatever had just been said. His
gaze,
however, was held significantly at Spock. Spock set the
nodule
down on the desk, but continued to finger it uncontrollably.
The conversation
went on
around him. Kirk's brain recorded every word, but he only had eyes for
Spock's fingers and the movements they made. He could almost
feel
the hot burn of his palm as it ran over the surface, ran over the
skin. The things it could do. The things it had
done.
The things they had done together back then. He
reached
desperately for his Higher Power but he could almost smell the rich
musk that would emerge as Spock's hand would milk the secret zest from
the luxuriant inside of the rind. He could almost taste the
bittersweet tang as the mixed juices ran down his throat. He
shifted uncomfortably to ease the swell in his pants, but the friction
against the fabric only made the situation worse and he moved to the
face the wall charts to hide his discomfort.
The clip of the
doctor's steps
in the hallway broke his reverie. And he snapped back to
himself.
With relief he noted Spock too had abandoned the nodule.
Bones
had warned them that their recovery would not always be easy.
He
felt a queer satisfaction at the realization that occasional relapses
weren't only for humans; even the cocky Vulcan wasn't immune from the
battle. At least he wouldn't be in this alone. Not
that
Spock would ever willingly leave him alone in anything.
Kirk turned his
full attention
back to the miner's dilemma. And then the lights faltered and
flashed as the emergency siren blew through the air. All at
once
they ran down the hallway to the reactor room.
*****'
Having surveyed
the damaged
reactor, they reconverged back in Vanderberg's office. Spock
moved like a marionette, drawn inexorably back towards the captivating
round ball.
With a red-alert
ringing in
his belly, Jim strode up to Spock's side. Barely brushing by
his
shoulder, he crossed the desk to face Spock head on. Kirk
leaned
in over the desk. "You seem fascinated by that rock, Mister Spock."
"Yes,
Captain." As if
drawn on a string, Spock picked up the ball and massaged it tetanically
between his hands. "You will recall Vanderberg commented that
there were thousands of these." Spock's eyes sparkled
unnaturally
bright.
McCoy eyed them
intently from
across the room. Jim kept his voice low and intimate when he
spoke. He twisted his shoulders to try and shield their
moment
from McCoy, although in his gut he knew it would do no good.
The
doctor was no fool.
"Do they tie in?"
Kirk redirected gently.
"I don't know."
Spock stared down at the object in his hands apparently utterly
transfixed.
"Speculate," Kirk
demanded harshly.
At the command
tone.
Spock made a valiant effort to recover. He tore his eyes away
and, seeing the doctor's intent stare, responded evenly, "I
have
already given Doctor McCoy sufficient cause for amusement. I
would prefer to cogitate the possibilities for a time."
Spock moved to
set the nodule
down, but Bones was already moving across the floor. His
professional instincts had overridden any ideal of privacy and he
barged in between the two men.
"Now just a
damned minute, you
two. It took six months of intensive therapy to get you two
over
this--addiction," Bones gestured at the nodule in disgust, "and I won't
see you regress now. Don't you remember what we discussed
about
triggers? Just what in the hell do you think you're
doing?
Playing with antimatter?" McCoy's eyes blazed living fire and
he
bounced angrily on his toes.
"Doc," Jim tried
for his most
reassuring chuckle. "It's just a silicon nodule. A
rock." Jim retrieved it from Spock's begrudging fingers and
tossed it in the air feigning abject indifference. "It
doesn't
feel the same. It doesn't look the same. It doesn't
smell
the same." He tossed it casually from hand to hand, but then
his
face froze. His index finger touched the pucker.
It was small and
rough and
round. About the size of--of a stem. He swirled his
finger
around the little dent. He could almost imagine the barest
remains of a little stump rubbing harsh against his
fingertip.
His stomach flipped and he set the nodule back on its desk stand with a
little more force than he had intended.
But the captain
recovered and
drilled a measure smile out at his two friends. "See, no
problem." He shifted his pelvis to minimize the appearance of
the
bulge in front.
McCoy's eyes
narrowed.
"Ummph. Just remember the first step. You are
powerless,"
he quoted. "Never forget it." McCoy stormed off
full steam
down the hallway. As soon as he left, Jim returned his gaze
to
the nodule.
Spock stood for a
long moment
watching Jim watch the hypnotic orb. His breathing became
uneven
and he took a step forward.
Jim reached out
as if to stroke the surface and Spock called out at once, "Jim!"
Startled, Jim
turned and tugged at his tunic. He readjusted his
face. "Yes, Spock, I'm all right. You?"
"Indeed."
Eyes still on
the nodule, Spock reached out a hand towards Jim's chest.
Longingly he drew his fingertips over the sweet swell of Jim's pecs and
over the sensitive bud of his nipple.
Jim shuddered and
pulled away.
"Spock, Bones is
right. We can't afford this right now. We have to
find that reactor pump."
Spock shook
himself and
dropped his arms behind his back. "Quite correct,
Captain."
His voice sounded almost normal again. Only Jim would have
heard
the subtle husky undertone. But he left his eyes glued to the
nodule until the last possible moment even as he followed Jim from the
room.
****
Down on the lower
level Jim announced into the communicator, "I've found a whole layer of
those silicon nodules of yours."
"Indeed?" Spock's
pulse quickened and he redoubled his pace toward the stash.
Breathlessly, he broke into the cavern.
"Come on over,
Mister Spock," Kirk beckoned him to his side.
Spock hastened
across the
floor and crouched down, knee to knee. Lost for words, Spock
could only point helplessly at the glorious heap of nodules before them
in the corner.
"Yes," Jim
said. "They are all through here, all over the
place." His pulse quickened at the thought.
"Yes, I
see." Spock's voice sounded unusually strained and he stared,
mesmerized at the tantalizing pile of balls.
"It means
something to you," Jim tried, his voice barely a whisper.
"Possibly," Spock
confessed. He licked his lips. Despite the years of
hard
work and recovery, it was clear that they were both utterly lost.
****
Emerging out of
the tunnel
into the Chamber of the Ages, Jim braked in awe at the wonder that
beheld him. A great glorious, rancid mound of nodules stood
before him. There must be tens of thousands, maybe a million,
and
everywhere spent husks were scattered around. He inhaled greedily and
sucked the musty air into his lungs. Something sticky clung
to a
half-shell. He examined it more closely. A residue
of dried
liquid, pale yellow. He lowered his head.
The acrid bite of
citrus
filled his nose and he fell forward on the pile in rapt
abandon.
Pawing greedily through the pile, he picked up a shell, a rind, and
held it to his nose. The aroma overpowered him and, helpless
in
the mindless pull of his addiction, he stuck one hand down his pants
and, cradling the half-hull against his chest, gave himself the touch
he body so deeply craved. It was only after he reached
completion
and he could think again that he finally saw the reactor
pump. He
tucked himself back in his garments and, wiping his hand on a musky
rind, trotted off back to Spock with his discoveries, one in each hand.
****
Back on the
Enterprise, Jim
adjusted the empty shell on their bedroom display shelf so that the
broken defect in the bottom wouldn't show. Just another
souvenir
of just another successful mission he had told McCoy.
Everybody
does it. It's a Starfleet tradition. No big deal.
Look at
all Spock's Vulcan mementos scattered around. Captain Garth
had
hundreds of alien artifacts and he's still going strong.
Surely
just one little nodule won't hurt anything. But
Jim's penis
jerked just thinking about the pleasures that those lovely balls could
bring and he rubbed himself, unawares, through his pants.
*****
Captain's
Log, stardate 4768.4:
First
Officer Spock, Doctor
Anne Mulhall and I have been contacted by beings composed of pure
energy and asked to take the enormous step of allowing them to enter
and penetrate our bodies in a way that has never been done
before. We can't even begin to imagine what an experience
like
this could entail. The risk is enormous, but the potential
gain,
I think, is equally great.
Jim ran his hands
lovingly
over the pulsing orb and inhaled the stale air of the long forgotten
chamber. He closed his eyes and let his senses carry him
away. The damp air hinted of rotting vegetation and the tart
sting of exotic flavors swamped his brain. His hands his
hands
stroked in rhythm ever faster over the glorious expanse of Sargon's
globe laid out before him. Jim's heart raced. His
temperature rose. His metabolic rate almost doubled.
"We accept your
proposition," Jim said, and licked his lips in rabid anticipation.