"The Three-Body Problem"
written by
Michael Gray
There are solutions for special cases, but there's not a simple formula to give you a general solution.
-Richard Montgomery
(Professor of Mathematics)
March 25, 2382...
The planet Yed Post Four, known to the locals as Gamala, became a large blue and white ball on the main viewscreen. In a few minutes, it would fill it completely and then some.
Jack McCall checked the chronometer again. Five more minutes on the shift.
“Captain,” Lieutenant Flanora, a female member of the Zalnor species from Landul Five, called to him from the communications station. “Sylvanus Port Control has cleared us for standard orbit.”
“Acknowledged,” Jack replied. “Lieutenant Burton, standard orbit if you please.”
“Already on it, sir,” the bright-eyed Zaylie Burton replied from the helm station.
Jack grinned. Zaylie had just received promotion to full lieutenant a week ago, and she seemed to be taking to the burden of new responsibilities with more ease than Jack ever remembered having.
I bet she'll get her own command in five years, he thought. God she was ambitious. It won't be a major starship, but perhaps an outpost command, or even a Defiant class ship. Yeah, I could see her commanding a Defiant class. The only down side in that for Zaylie would be she wouldn't be at the controls any longer. Damn, how she loved to pilot a ship.
“Standard orbit achieved,” Burton replied.
Jack touched a control on his command chair. “Captain to crew, shore leave will commence in one hour. Standard rotation. Any questions, check with the XO.”
Zaylie turned to him with a wide grin. “The only question I have is what place serves the best drinks!”
Flanora looked at Zaylie. “That's easy. The Warp Nine Club. Best drinks, dancing, and uh... other activities on Sylvanus.”
“Never been there.” Zaylie hesitated a moment. “This notion of other activities sounds interesting.”
Flanora smiled. “If you can wait until 1500 I'll go down with you.”
Zaylie developed a devilish grin, but turned to Jack, and the grin faded just a bit. “But I pilot the shuttle.”
“Deal,” Flanora said, returning to her controls.
“Do you ladies mind if I catch a ride down to the surface with you?” Jack asked.
Flanora glanced at Zaylie again.
Zaylie shrugged her shoulders.
“If you'd rather not, I can find...”
“Don't be silly, Captain,” Zaylie quickly interjected. “You can tag along.”
“Certainly, sir,” Flanora added.
Jack wasn't convinced they were really happy with him joining them. He hadn't caught himself soon enough to remember having the captain along when you head out on shore leave wasn't an exciting prospect. And given Zaylie's penchant for being by the book when he was around, probably made it worse. Too often he would forget what it was like to deal with the captain rather than being the captain.
No, he'd find a convenient excuse to back out, leaving the two women to experience the beginning of their shore leave at full throttle.
Kadan Loftus and the second shift entered the bridge from the main entrance behind Jack.
“All go well, sir?” Loftus asked as she took the now vacated command chair.
“Kind of hard to screw up a standard orbital insertion,” Jack replied.
Loftus's brow raised.
“Okay, given our luck, it's a fifty-fifty proposition on a good day,” he said. “But Burton was at the controls. You know she's our good luck charm when it comes to such things.”
Zaylie spun about in her chair. “I am?”
Loftus smiled at Zaylie. “That little bit of fancy among the command staff was supposed to be kept secret.” She turned to Jack, the smile transforming into a frown. “But Captain Blabbermouth seems to have let the tribble out of the cargo hold. Hopefully it doesn't multiply into something dangerous,” she finished, glancing at Zaylie.
“Sorry,” Jack said, looking down. “I'll get out of your hair.”
Lieutenant Anders approached Zaylie. “You are relieved.”
She hopped out of her seat. “And now... I stand relieved.”
Anders laughed as he sat down.
“Take care of my ship,” she said.
“Aye, aye, Captain, Ma'am.”
Jack left the bridge on his way to the turbolift.
A moment later, Zaylie flew up beside him.
He glanced at her as she now walked with him. “Your ship?”
“Well...”
Jack chuckled as they entered the lift together.
“Where's Flanora?”
“She's coming,” Zaylie said. “Had something to tell her relief about communications.”
He nodded. After a moment, he turned to her. “I can find another ride.”
“No need,” she said.
“I don't want to get in the way of your fun.”
She laughed. “You've never done that.”
“That night with you and Anders...”
She shook her head. “Not at all.”
“You two serious?”
She frowned. “Anders? Hell no. We're just friends. He has his moments, but then every man does. Finding one who has minutes, hours, or days, that's the trick.”
They exited the turbolift on deck seven.
“Which shuttlebay?” he asked.
“Bay three.” She grinned. “I'd like to leave in sixty minutes.”
“I'll be there,” Jack said.
A minute later, Jack was in his quarters, packing a bag.
His wife and operations officer, Melissa Vargas, walked up to him. “Do you really have to go?”
“Afraid so,” he said, pulling an extra uniform out of the closet. “Admiral Grant wants all captains in the quadrant to come to Vulcan for this meeting.”
“Then why not have the ship go there instead of Yed Post Four?”
“He said this meeting falls under security protocol seven one seven.”
Melissa walked over to Jack. “That's the invasion precautionary protocol.”
Jack nodded. “Seems someone has decided to poke at our borders once again.”
“Great, another damn war.”
“I doubt it,” he said. “Like you said, it's precautionary. If it was bad, we'd already be on a war footing.”
She sat on the back of the couch. “When will you be back?”
“Should be only a week, maybe ten days,” he said. “You have any plans?”
“Kristy wants me to go out to a club with her tomorrow tonight.”
“Good.”
“You are aware of the kinds of places she likes to go, right?”
He grinned. “I can imagine.”
“I doubt you can,” Melissa said with a smirk.
“You should have fun while I'm gone,” he said. “Relax and kick back.”
Melissa stared at him for several moments. “And... there's a friend of mine who's supposed to be here this week.”
“Oh?” Jack continued packing, only half listening.
“Theodore Boylan. His ship, the Astra, just returned from an extended mission mapping deep into the Beta Quadrant.”
Jack hesitated a moment. “Isn't that the friend of yours from the Academy?”
She nodded. “He wanted to catch up, but...”
“But what?”
She looked into his eyes. “I wasn't sure if you'd have a problem with me having lunch with him.”
“Why would I have a problem with that?”
“We have history. Sexual history.”
“Have you ever made an issue of the women I have sexual history with?”
“No, but that kind of thing doesn't bother me, and you know it doesn't bother me.” She took a long breath. “After some of the things you said in our last counseling session...”
Jack had been trying to forget that. There had been a lot of yelling and accusations tossed about during that hour, much of it revolving around their different expectations concerning their marriage.
He shook his head. “You told me he was a good friend.”
“Probably my closest friend in the universe after you.”
Jack turned to her. “Go and catch up with him. If you don't you'll regret it. He's on a deep survey vessel. Who knows when you'll see him again.”
Melissa seemed ready to say something else, but then forced a smile. “Okay. Thanks.”
“You don't need my permission,” he said. “Like you told me once, this marriage shouldn't be a prison. I certainly don't want it to be that for you.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Okay, I know I've got a lot to work on in that regard,” he said. He stepped up to her, kissing her forehead.
“That you're working on it encourages me.” Melissa tilted her head and kissed him. “Be safe.”
“I will,” he said, turning to go. But he stopped and grinned. “And have some fun. I'll be back in a week and then it's back to the same old boring life.”
“Life with you isn't boring.”
“Okay, then routine.”
“Routine can be fun.”
He smiled and walked out.
***
Jack hurried into shuttle bay three.
Zaylie stood next to the shuttle wearing civilian clothes. “No need to rush. Flanora is going to be another ten minutes.”
“We could get the shuttle ready in that time,” he said, stopping in front of her.
“Already done.”
“You are too damn efficient.”
She smiled wide. “So what's this about me being a good luck charm?”
“Just something some of the senior officers have been saying since you came aboard,” Jack replied. “You've impressed them with your piloting skills, and your dedication to Starfleet.”
“Just doing my job, sir.”
Jack grinned. On top of being a good officer, Jack enjoyed her sense of humor. “How you holding up under the weight of that new rank pin?”
“Still surprised I got it that fast.”
“My mission report about the Levalum Pirates we ran into seems to have made quite the splash in the bowels of Starfleet, specifically the part about how you kept us between the pirates and the transport vessels the entire time,” Jack said. “Making a hulk like the Chamberlain nimble enough to do that is impressive. Doing it and protecting the lives of five hundred civilians, doubly so.”
Zaylie smiled wide.
“You're an excellent officer, Zaylie, too good for this ship.”
“Are you bad mouthing my ship again?” she asked with a mock mad going.
Jack shook his head and laughed. “No, ma'am.” After a moment. “It's just I know originally you were assigned to the Langtry and since it was brand new out of the shipyard...”
“I have no regrets about being on Chamberlain, sir. I had the opportunity to go elsewhere, but made the choice to come here.”
“No regrets at all?” he asked with wide eyes.
“It's not the assignment which makes the officer, but the choices they make on that assignment which do.”
“Damn,” he said. “You'll be a hell of a CO someday.”
Zaylie smiled. “That means a lot coming from you.”
He rolled his eyes. “A week into your next assignment, you'll wonder how you put up with that jackass McCall.”
She took a step toward him. “I'll remember not so much your command style or the missions, but how you have been such a dear to me from the moment I came aboard, especially when I first came aboard.”
He considered that for several moments. “So I'm some sort of father figure for you?”
She grinned. “I'd be willing to expand that if you were.”
Jack could think of about thirty ways to take that, but most of them would result in him coming off conceited as hell. He'd done enough of that in his twenties and thirties when it was more expected, or at least tolerated.
Instead he went for the safe option. “I'm not sure how to take that.”
“Good Lord! You can be so dense sometimes,” she said with a laugh. “But that just adds to how dear you are.”
“Dense? Me?”
“Like neutronium,” she said with a laugh. “But it's one of your more endearing qualities.”
“I have endearing qualities?” he asked with a chuckle.
“You're really working hard at this captain above it all thing, aren't you?” She frowned. “Haven't you noticed how the women on this ship, and some of the men, react to you on a personal level?”
“Well, on occasion, yes.”
“I've heard some of your female officers talk about their interest in getting you into bed.”
Okay, that shattered his view of the universe more than a little. “I think you're grossly exaggerating. I understand that occasionally someone is attracted to the CO because they're the CO.”
“You should hear Kristy Bishop talk about you.”
“Oh, her.” Jack shook his head. “I know at one time she... but that was years ago.”
“There are others,” Zaylie said. “This is a ship with a crew of three thousand.”
“Really?” This wasn't false modesty for Jack. He really didn't believe it.
She nodded.
Jack shook his head. “I'm more than a little bit over the hill for that kind of fixation.”
“You are so sweet,” she said with a smile.
“How so?”
“Not seeing it.”
Jack thought a moment. He was usually good at gauging a woman's interest. Men, not so much, but even then, he did notice. He remembered Liz and her friends a number of months ago, but he figured that was just Liz being Liz, that afterward, the moment had passed. Given she, nor her friends had as much as hinted at anything more since, he had considered it a momentary thing which evaporated like so much morning dew on a hot Summer day.
But...
Could he be that blind? Or was he just that dedicated to Melissa? Or was it something else? Was he feeling older than he was? He'd hate to think he was missing out on life like that.
“You are hopeless,” Zaylie said.
“I'm forty-seven,” he said. “At a certain point a man assumes he's not as attractive to women as he used to be. I noticed the falloff quite some time ago.”
“I heard you were fifty-two.”
Jack went full stop. No one was supposed to know that was his true chronological age. As far as he knew, only Melissa and Doctor Preston were aware of it because Melissa was his wife, and Preston could tell from his scans, so he had been told out of necessity about Jack's five year hiatus in a past century. But Zaylie had always shown an uncanny ability to know things which she shouldn't.
Best to leave it be, and let her to think she'd gotten wrong information.
“How does that make this line of discussion any better?”
“Check back with me sometime after I've had a couple of drinks and I'll tell you.” She started to grin. “You could come with me and Flanora to this club she's taking me to.”
“I don't think so.”
“You could explain this discrepancy with your age.”
“That's not going to happen,” he said, angry at himself that he'd given her this opening on the topic.
She seemed lost in thought a moment. “More time travel stuff?”
“God, I hate that about you!”
Zaylie chirped with glee. “It is, isn't it?!”
“We're not having this discussion.”
“I love all that time travel stuff!”
Jack figured it was time to let the hammer fall. “Lieutenant, you are under no circumstances to discuss this with anyone, is that clear? This is an order.”
She frowned. “You're no fun.”
“See? I told you. I'm just an old fart who ruins your fun.”
Zaylie laughed heartily. “That was rhetorical. I expect under the right conditions you're a hell of a lot of fun.”
“Excuse me,” a male voice asked from behind Jack.
Both he and Zaylie turned to the couple walking up to them.
Todd Nakano stopped, and smiled. Robin Nelson was on his right arm, smiling as well.
“Any chance we can get a ride down to the planet?” Nakano asked.
Jack pointed to Zaylie. “She's the captain.”
Zaylie rolled her eyes. “Sure. The more the merrier.”
Ten minutes later, they were all inside the shuttle along with Flanora. Zaylie piloted them down to the surface.
Jack glanced over at Robin to find her staring at him.
He smiled.
She returned his smile.
Oh god, Jack thought. Is this what Zaylie was talking about?
A half hour later, Jack walked with Nakano and Robin toward Starfleet Headquarters. That's where Jack was headed, but they were going to the Pierce Valley Apartments a couple of blocks away.
After some idle chatting back and forth about ship gossip, Nakano went into the apartment complex office, leaving Jack and Robin outside.
“I'm sorry I was staring on the ride down,” Jack said.
“For a moment, I almost mistook it for interest,” Robin said with a grin. “Then I remembered you knew the me of this reality.”
“Sorry.”
“Don't be,” she said. “I'm glad there's someone here aside from Kristy who knows who I really am.”
“Is it all that different?”
“Not really,” Robin said with a sigh. “But I miss friends from the other timeline. ” She looked up at the sky. “Sometimes I feel as if someone created this reality out of the bits and pieces of my own. I see familiar faces, but none of it fits together like I expect it to. ” She looked at Jack. “But then there's you. You're the one piece I don't recognize.”
“Is that a good or bad thing?”
She smiled. “Very good. You remind me this is a different place, a different galaxy than the one I grew up in. You ground me to reality as it is, not as I wished it still was. That keeps me from going crazy.”
Jack knew what that was like, needing someone to ground your sense of reality.
“I wondered if you wouldn't mind me asking about something,” he said.
“Please do. I'd be glad to talk about my true home.”
“I was told Larissa James was in command of the Chamberlain in your timeline.”
Robin nodded. “She was a good captain.” Robin smiled a moment.
“Something?”
“She and Mei, my Mei, used to get into some really bad arguments.” Robin looked at him. “She told me about you and Captain James.”
“We'd been in love since the Academy, were going to get married.”
“Mei also told me she died here.”
Jack looked down. “On one of our first missions out of the Academy.”
“Mine went through something similar, but someone else died.”
“Can you tell me,” Jack began. “What was she like there?”
Robin smiled. “Warm, friendly, but like I said, you didn't want to cross her.”
“Sounds a lot like my Larissa.”
Robin put her hand on his arm. “I'm sorry you lost her like that. I know what it's like to lose people.”
Jack turned to her. “But you lost a whole universe of people.”
“Your ex-wife was responsible for that.”
He could see the fierceness in her eyes. Outside of Duncan Zachary, their former science officer, Jack had never seen anyone that angry at Mei-Wan.
“No,” Jack said. “Mei was resetting the timeline. From what we understand this one is the original.”
“Convenient for all of you to come to that conclusion,” Robin said. “Forgive me if I find that little comfort for all the people I knew.”
“Mei could have left you there.”
“A lot of days, I wish she had.”
“Never think that,” Jack said. “You're alive. That's what's important.”
“I try to tell myself that, but it's so hard sometimes,” she said.
Jack didn't know how to respond to that, so he let silence hang between them for a while. “So, you and Nakano?”
“I knew him in the other timeline,” she said. “And no, I haven't told him.”
“What was he like there?”
“The same, but much happier,” Robin said. “There he was involved with my Mei.”
“Really?” Jack asked, surprised he hadn't heard this before from either Hank or Mei-Wan.
“They were going to get married, but Mei's parents were against it.”
“Bao-Yu was like a force of nature. One usually to be avoided if at all possible,” Jack said.
“I met her several times,” Robin said. “In the other...” Robin stopped. “Was?”
“She died last year,” Jack said.
“Oh, I didn't know.”
“You and Mei haven't...”
“We don't talk. I will never forgive her for what she did,” Robin said the anger returning fresh. “You can tell me all you want that this is the right timeline, but it doesn't excuse all those people who now no longer exist as they did because of her.”
“I'm sorry,” Jack said. “I didn't mean to upset you.”
“It's not you, sir.”
“But it was me,” Jack said. “It was because Hank and Mei went to bring me back that everything changed. If anyone is responsible, I am.”
She shook her head. “You were at the mercy of forces beyond your control.”
“And so was Mei-Wan,” Jack said. “I know you want to be angry at her, and I certainly understand how she can bring that out in people, but she did what she thought was right, not for her, but for the galaxy.”
“And Captain James? Was it the right thing for her?”
Jack looked down again. “That's the part I've had the hardest time reconciling. God, how I wish she was still alive, even if I didn't exist.”
“That's what love does,” Robin said. “It thinks of others, not itself.”
Jack turned to her, but she seemed lost in thought for several seconds. By the time she brought her focus back to him, Nakano had returned.
“Success!” Nakano said as if he had conquered some wild beast. “We've got a place for two weeks on the top floor.”
“I have a flight to catch. I should be going,” Jack said, turning to them both. “It was good talking to you, Commander.”
“Any time, sir,” Robin said.
***
Melissa smiled. Seeing Ted always made her happy. Seeing him now especially so.
She sat in The Wild Gander, a bar and restaurant where Ted had suggested they meet for lunch.
Commander Theodore Boylan sat across from her, digging into a plate of beef ribs, his wild hair tossed about with each ravenous bite he took.
He let out a laugh as he turned his brilliant blue eyes from the food on his plate to her. “You've been quiet.”
“I'm eating,” Melissa said, holding up her fork with a bite of Flendala Salad she had just speared.
He frowned. “So what were you going to do if Captain Husband hadn't had to go on whatever it is you can't tell me about?”
She ate the food from her fork, hoping it would give her a chance to think up an innocuous answer.
“We were going to the southern continent. There's a place up on a mountain range there that I'd heard about from a friend that sounded incredible,” Melissa said. “But he's the captain of the ship. He has responsibilities.”
“It must be a long meeting if you won't get a chance to go there for the whole two weeks you're here.”
“I really can't talk about it except to tell you that the meeting is off world.”
He looked up at her. “If you'd like, we could go,” he said.
Melissa frowned at him and set down her fork. “I don't think so.”
“It could be sex free ,” he said quickly. “We could even get separate rooms if you feel that's necessary. I'd just like to have some extended time catching up with you. Who knows when we'll have another opportunity like this.”
She knew separate rooms weren't necessary. Ted's word was gold. If she asked it, he wouldn't bring up sex again while they were here on Yed Post Four. Even if they did share a room, he would respect her wishes on the subject. He never pushed her.
The thing which bothered her was why she hadn't extracted that promise from him yet. A part of Melissa's mind wanted to, but she just couldn't bring herself to ask.
***
Zaylie Burton hurried to catch up with Flanora. She handed her friend a piece of the sugary confection she'd picked up from a street vendor.
“What is it?”
“Don't know,” Zaylie said, taking a cautious bite of the spun sugar and flour cake. “But it tastes heavenly!”
Flanora took a nibble. “Um. That is good.”
“With a million places to eat in this city, why are you dragging me all the way out here?” Zaylie asked.
“Taylor said it was great.”
“Taylor?” Zaylie asked with a grin. “It's Taylor now?”
Flanora grinned.
“Really?! The doctor?”
“A couple of times, ” Flanora said. “He's great.” She paused a moment as they continued to walk down the streets of Sylvanus. “Really knows his way around a body.”
“Very funny,” Zaylie said.
“You ought to.”
“Maybe,” Zaylie said with a grin. She looked up an down the street. “So what's the name of this place?”
“The Wild Gander,” Flanora replied. “He said it's got a huge menu from all across the Federation. You can order practically anything from a hundred worlds.”
“How's he know about it?”
“Said he came here once about four years ago with members of the Chamberlain crew, most of who aren't aboard any longer.” Flanora turned to Zaylie. “He told me everything changed after their stop here.”
“In what way?”
“He didn't say,” Flanora replied. “He just looked off into space as if he were remembering something sad.”
“Obviously it wasn't too bad or he wouldn't still be aboard.”
“He likes serving on the Chamberlain. Says he's been there long enough that it feels like home to him.”
Zaylie turned to her. “You're really sweet on him, aren't you?”
“You're one to talk,” Flanora said. “Who is it you drone on about all the time?”
Zaylie shook her head. “I have no idea what you're talking about.”
“I'm sure you don't,” Flanora said with a laugh.
“Okay, who are you thinking of?”
They continued walking.
“A certain captain.”
Zaylie shook her head. “You're insane.”
Flanora stopped and put up her hand to block Zaylie moving forward. “Well, look at that!”
Right in front of The Wild Gander Zaylie saw a couple walking arm in arm.
“Vargas?”
“And that's not the captain, ” Flanora said her eyes wide.
“Must be a friend.”
Vargas and the man with wild hair stopped. He took her face in his hands, and slowly kissed her.
“I'd say more than a friend,” Flanora replied as she pulled Zaylie behind the corner of a building.
“He's not from the ship,” Flanora said, peering around the corner.
“You sure?”
“Trust me on that.”
Zaylie grinned. “You know all three thousand...”
“All one thousand, two hundred and twenty-four males. And no, I don't know them, but I've checked their personnel records.”
“And you remember all of them?”
“Members of my species have exceptional memory capacity.”
Zaylie looked again. “Must be an old friend.”
“They're holding hands again,” Flanora said. “Doesn't that mean more than friends among humans?”
“Often yes, but not always.”
The man kissed Vargas again as they started to walk down the street.
“Very interesting,” Flanora said. “They must have an arrangement.”
“Who?”
“The captain and Vargas,” Flanora replied.
“You think so?” Zaylie considered the possibilities of that a moment.
“I know that look.”
“I have a look?” Zaylie did her best not to smile.
“When you're trying to think of how to invite a man into your bed.” Flanora stepped around the corner of the building now that Vargas and her friend were gone. “And you've got a serious thing for him.”
Zaylie shook her head. “I flirt with him on occasion, but I'm not going to intrude on their relationship.”
“Loverboy back there didn't seem to have a problem with it.”
“I don't know,” Zaylie said. “We could be missing something here.”
“I hear McCall had been involved with a couple of Deltan women from the corps of engineers back several years ago during his previous marriage.” Flanora waved Zaylie to cross the street with her. “And I heard that around the same time his former wife had something going on with Hoffman.”
“Ugh!” Zaylie said, feigning the need to vomit. “I guess we know why their marriage didn't last. If I were the captain, I'd consider that an insult.”
“The point is he seems to have had an arrangement with his ex-wife and probably has something similar with Vargas where they can seek out other sexual partners .”
“Maybe,” Zaylie murmured.
As they neared The Wild Gander, Flanora turned to Zaylie.
“How about we find the captain and see if he's interested? You said the two of you get along well.”
“Yeah, but that's on a professional level,” Zaylie said.
“I thought you said he was a friend.”
“Okay, so more than just professional sometimes.”
“You know you like him, admit it.”
“He might have a problem with the age difference between him and us,” Zaylie said. “Some guys can be touchy about that. He's in his early fifties, we're in our mid twenties.”
Flanora stopped. “I'm eighty-six.”
Zaylie was sure she had heard that wrong. “Did you say eighty-six?”
Flanora nodded.
“But you graduated from the Academy only two years before I did.”
“True,” Flanora replied. “But my species doesn't reach adulthood until fifty. I'm, what do humans call it? A late bloomer.”
“Wow,” Zaylie said, thinking of the differences. “What's your normal life span?”
“Usually around five hundred years.”
Zaylie took a step back and stared at her friend. She never would have guessed Flanora was more than eight decades old. She always appeared to have the liveliness and outlook of someone in their twenties.
But then, eighty-six out of five hundred, that would make her a teenager. However, that wouldn't work if they reached adulthood by fifty.
“This is going to take me some time to wrap my head around,” Zaylie said.
Flanora held out her two head tentacles. “Wrap these around your head,” she said with a giggle. “I'm still working on getting used to that mess you call hair. I can't believe small animals don't nest in it.”
Zaylie laughed. “But you still love me.”
Flanora gave Zaylie a playful shove. “You're lucky I do.”
They walked into The Wild Gander.
“Smaller than I would have thought,” Zaylie said.
“It's cozy,” Flanora said. “That's the word, right?”
Zaylie nodded as they sat at a table.
Flanora glanced at a menu. “So you want to find the captain and ask him?”
“Lord, I don't know,” Zaylie said, unable to even look at the menu now. “If he says no, I'll feel really stupid.”
“Why?”
“It would be...”
“Is this you thinking you're not good enough again?”
Zaylie looked down at the table. “He's the captain, and I'm just me.”
“An intelligent, resourceful, and in my opinion, attractive female, for a human that is,” Flanora said with a grin. “Okay, if not the captain, how about Hoffman?”
“Are you serious?!” Zaylie shouted. “I hear he's toxic as hell.” She shook her head, not believing her friend would have any interest in someone like Kyle Hoffman. “Besides, he's gone.”
“Gone?” Flanora asked.
“He resigned his commission yesterday,” Zaylie said, trying her best to remember what she'd overheard their XO, Kadan Loftus say in the deck seven lounge at dinner the previous evening. “He's decided to go be a monk or something with some religious group on Velromal. I think it has something to do with the Ancient Progenitors.”
“And here I thought he seemed like he might be fun,” Flanora said, a frown on her face. “Then that brings us back to Captain Sexy.”
“He really had sex with two Deltans?” Zaylie felt more plain than usual.
“I'd say he has an interest in exploring, don't you think?” Flanora grinned. “And an interest in living dangerously. The fact he could walk again tells you he's got to be amazing in bed. The more I think about it, the more I realize I have to see what he's like.”
Zaylie relented. She couldn't stand the idea Flanora might have sex with Jack McCall and she would get nothing but the experience of hearing about it for the rest of time.
“Okay,” she said. “But let's go subtle. Let's feel him out on the situation with Vargas first.”
“I intend to do more than feel him out,” Flanora said, peering over her menu.
Zaylie rolled her eyes. “Another crack like that and you'll have to find someone else for this mission.”
Flanora's smile faded, and she set down the menu. “You've never had reservations about this sort of thing before.”
“We've never done this before.”
“What about that gorgeous hunk of a male, Commander Ansuini, from engineering?”
Zaylie smiled at the memory.
Flanora continued, “He was married.”
“But in that case, his husband joined us.”
“Oh, that's right,” Flanora said with a wide grin. “That was amazing!”
Zaylie nodded in agreement. It had been indeed.
“Are you really having second thoughts about this?” Flanora asked.
Zaylie shrugged her shoulders and picked up her glass of water. She didn't want Flanora to look into her eyes. “I just worry he's not going to be interested in me that way.”
“You're cute as hell,” Flanora said. “And that's not just me. I've heard males in the crew say so.”
“A lot of guys don't agree,” Zaylie said. “Outside of the obnoxious types, I'm not the kind of girl guys pursue.”
“What about what's-his-name from life sciences?”
Zaylie made a gagging sound. “Too stuck in his own little world.”
“You know the captain isn't that way.” Flanora started to grin. “Besides, we're only talking about one night, and I'll be part of the deal, and you know how human guys are about the tentacles.” She slowly rubbed the tentacles extending from her head.
“I think half the guys we've gotten together with are interested those things, and I'm just along for the ride.”
“But you do have fun, right?”
Zaylie had to admit she had. “I guess so.”
“Why so glum all of a sudden?”
“It's not all of a sudden,” Zaylie said. “I've always been realistic about how men react to me.”
Flanora shook her head, and waved over a waitress. “That settles it. We're going to The Warp Nine Club, do some dancing, have some fun, then we locate Captain Sexy.”
“He and Vargas might have plans.”
“Did she look like she was going to spend the evening with McCall?”
Zaylie grinned. Perhaps this crazy idea might pan out after all. If it did, she'd just pretend Flanora wasn't there.
***
March 26, 2382...
Melissa Vargas woke, finding herself still sleeping in Ted Boylan's arms, and still in the bed at the hotel they had checked into six hours earlier.
She cast a glance at the nearby window. It was dark outside, not morning yet.
I can't believe I did this, she thought. What was it Jack said? Have fun?
I certainly did that, she tried to reassure herself. But that momentary uptick in her self-confidence didn't last any longer than a chip of ice on a hot stove.
Melissa had never felt wrong about anything in her sex life ever. She'd always treated her partners with respect, and accepted the differences between her and them as something to be explored and appreciated.
And as far as sex with Ted this time, she had enjoyed it immensely. But then, that was never an issue with him. She and Ted knew each other's bodies and their likes and dislikes so well, it was always effortless and orgasmic.
The only problem was Jack.
Even though they had discussed it dozens of times, they'd never really actually discussed it, more liked discussed the possibility of discussing it, and had never gotten much farther.
Melissa had tried to bring it up several times in their counseling sessions, but Jack had withdrawn despite having admitted he didn't want their marriage to be a prison for either of them. The last session they'd had blew up because she'd broached the topic.
But when she had looked at their marriage through an objective lens, and let her own feelings finally be expressed, it had indeed felt like a prison with bars of neutronium.
And sex with Ted four hours ago felt as if she had broken out of that prison.
More than that. Being with Ted again...
“I feel so alive,” she murmured to herself. She wanted to shout how good she felt, but she had no intention of waking Ted. She needed to think through this on her own.
She hated how she felt guilty for setting herself free, as if doing so was a bad thing. No, all of this revolved around Jack and his preconceptions.
She was afraid what this would mean when she got back to her real life.
No, she told herself. I can contain this. It's my little corner of life, separate from everything else, including Jack.
This is mine, and I'll keep it that way.
But what if he asks? He knew I was meeting Ted.
No, I did nothing wrong. I enjoyed time with an old friend, someone I have cherished for over ten years, someone who has always been there for me, one of my few true friends. I don't share Jack's romantic notions of married life, and he knows that. It doesn't mean I love him any less, but those ideas are his, not mine. He has been aware from the start I have a more twenty-fourth century sensibility. His self worth as a man, as a husband, shouldn't depend on keeping me as some sort of possession.
It was difficult for her to buy those rationalizations even while still in Ted's embrace. Melissa was quite aware that as much as Jack might intellectually agree with her, that his emotional response would be something else entirely.
Then she had to contain it. That was the only answer.
No one knows, she reassured herself. I'll enjoy another couple of days with Ted, and cut it off with still a few days before Jack returns. Then I'll indulge Kristy's ideas of fun for a day or two.
This is how I save our marriage. By letting myself breathe, I've released a point of contention between Jack and me. This will actually make it easier between us.
She nodded to herself.
Melissa finally started to feel confident this would work. She'd still feel some guilt about it, but she knew she was, on balance, making the right choice for her and Jack's marriage.
She closed her eyes.
Melissa listened to Ted breathe in and out, attempting to allow that rhythm to return her to the slumber where guilt couldn't invade.
She was about to lose consciousness, her mind drifting off, thinking of Jack. Then her eyes bolted open.
“Oh god,” she whispered to herself. “What have I done?!”
* * *
Dark Horizon Story and Characters Copyright ©2020 Michael Gray
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