Questionable Morality - Chapter 10
Questionable Morality
Chapter Ten
Travis stretched the kinks of the last several months out as
the water fell upon him. He hated refusing her request, but his mission would
be incomplete if Forrest got away. He knew how persistent Hoshi could be and
cursed the dumb luck that put her and her crew in danger. Forrest and her
missing crew still hung over his head, but the dragnet on this operation had
caught a high reward � Archer and Enterprise. The judicial system would be
bogged down for years to come. Travis made a mental note to review the Enterprise
crew roster and make notes of mercy in their records, especially Lieutenant Laxdal.
Travis had offered him a deal � Ignore Archer's order and
don't beat the shit out of him, and Travis would testify on his behalf at his
court martial. Most of Enterprise's crew turned easily for they knew their time
was up. Each case would be reviewed on an individual basis and everybody would
get their fair hearing. The door to his bathroom opened and Hoshi stormed in
shouting at him.
"You've got to let me go, Travis!" she paced the
room and stopped right in front of the shower stall. "They still won't let
me use the communications array! In fact, they kicked me off the bridge."
"Goddamn, Hoshi, I'm trying to take a shower
here," he shouted and continued to lather up. Privacy was a luxury on an
E.C.S. ship and they had basically spent their time running into one another on
the Horizon.
Hoshi walked closer to the frosted glass, which protected
the last vestiges of his modesty and peered over it. "Oh please! You don't
have anything I haven't seen before. If I remember correctly, I had a bird's
eye view of you and Kammie in the cargo hold and�"
Travis rinsed his body and shut the water off. "Don't
try to butter me up, Hoshi," he warned. "I'm sure your crew is fine.
They knew the score going in, right?"
All the frustration, fear and lack of sleep finally rolled
over her and her eyes misted. "It doesn't make it any easier," she
whispered.
Travis stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel,
wrapping it around his waist and tucking it in. He embraced her in a warm hug
as she sobbed on his shoulder.
--
The haircut was trivial, but the barber was obliging. He
would do anything to keep from sleeping. Tucker walked down the hall, which was
amazingly clear of debris and refugees, and stopped in front of Captain Reed's
quarters. He rang the chime and the door opened with no prompt. Trip stared
into the darkened room. "Hello?"
"Captain � what can I help you with?" The clipped
British accent was slightly slurred.
Trip stepped in and the door shut behind him, his eye
quickly adjusting on the shadowy figure of Malcolm Reed. "Malcolm,"
he nodded. "Level with me. How much time we got?" Trip knew the Intrepid's
specifications inside and out. He knew all the ships in Starfleet intimately.
"We have a little over twenty hours of breathable air
left," he stated plainly. "The nearest M-class planet is over a week
away. I was only supposed to recover her crew."
Trip puzzled at the last comment. "Her crew?"
"Spangler, Mukai, and Bishop," Malcolm stumbled on
the names and scoffed. "I don't even remember the names of the
others."
Trip remained silent.
"I couldn't very well leave you down there, could
I?" Malcolm murmured and stood, walking over to his window. "She made
me promise to retrieve them first and her second."
"I don't follow," Trip stated, looking at the
other man. The light from the window showcased his scarred physique and Trip
shuddered. He and Malcolm were passing acquaintances at best and he knew about
the accident, but he had never imagined the severity.
"Captain Sato is � was the captain of the Celestial.
They were running guns to Andoria. I intercepted them, fabricated charges and
bribed them into this mission. We tagged them like animals with Bronlox to track
them. They were just bait." Malcolm's voice wavered. "She told me she
would have done it if I had asked."
He was unable to offer the man at the window any solace.
"She's dead now. I can only imagine what she went
through before she died."
--
Acting Captain Travis Mayweather stepped onto the bridge of
the Enterprise and took his place in the center of the bridge. The skeleton
crew looked at him warily. They were the ones who had proclaimed their
innocence. They were the ones who stated they were just following orders. They
were the ones with the pathetic excuse and they were the ones who were easily
intimidated by the skeleton crews from the Kennedy and Grissom who had remained
onboard to insure their compliance until Enterprise was docked at Jupiter station.
Travis tapped the remainder of the code into the console of
the captain's chair and restored all of Enterprise's systems. Hoshi stood next
to him.
"Sir, there's a priority one transmission coming from
the Nantellis system. Transponder signal matches the Intrepid�s," The
crewman at the com station reported.
"What does it say?" Hoshi blurted, crossing over
to the station and pushing the crewman out of the way.
"It's just a distress signal. There's nothing
more."
--
He held the container like it was a precious gift. Trip
walked down the corridor toward the brig with the oranges, seeking his lover
and wanting to spend as much time with her as he could. The door opened and he
stepped over a pile of stacked dishes on the floor. Snores and whispers sounded
throughout the brig. Lita was asleep on her bunk and he watched her peaceful
slumber. She was unaware of the potential danger they all faced, her face
relaxed and occasionally smiling as she dreamt.
Trip didn't have the heart to wake her and set the oranges
down. He stood there, bracing his forearms on the bunk, content with watching
her. He had thought she was just a hapless E.C.S. member who had been unlucky
to be caught by Archer. She had volunteered for the mission and his admiration
in her grew.
Her pale skin was soft and flawless with exception to the
various bruises that spattered a trail along her body. He had seen them, the
bruises haunting him every time he closed his eyes. The bruising along her
thighs and hips was most damning of all, especially along her hip. There was an
unmistakable bruise that looked like a handprint. I looked like she was held
and battered. His imagination ran wild and his temper flared.
"Hi," she whispered huskily, sleep still clinging
to her voice. She smiled.
"Hi back," he murmured and tucked her ebony hair
behind her ear as it had fallen across her face.
"What are you doing here?" She moved to get up and
his hand darted out to stop her.
"Be careful," he chuckled. "I don't want you
to knock your head on the ceiling."
She smiled at him and he kissed her hand tenderly. She
squinted and sighed. "You got your hair cut." She touched his
sideburn and chuckled. "How old are you?"
"Old enough to know better than to answer that
question," he countered playfully. �
Her dark eyes became wide and she leaned forward for a kiss.
"Want to share my bunk with me, sir?" She lifted her blanket and
offered herself up like a delectable treat. She was wearing a tank and boxers.
Trip met her lips with his and kissed her softly,
reluctantly dragging his lips from hers. "I don't think the bunk will
support both of us."
"This bunk is made out of poly-industrial celenium. It
could support the weight of two elephants," she said mischievously and
slipped her hand underneath her top and moved to take it off.
Trip's hand shot out and held her wrist tenderly.
"Don't tempt me, minx. I could sleep inside you."
Lita shivered as the visual played in her mind and she
whispered a quick 'yes' against his lips. "I would love to sleep on top of
you with your �"
He kissed her, ramming his tongue past her lips and seeking
her tongue. He quickly stripped down to his skivvies, mindless with wanting
her. Trip broke the kiss and watched as she moved to the edge of the bunk. She
held the blanket to her chest and he climbed up to the cot and lay on his side.
Trip cupped her face in his hand and she kissed his palm.
Her hand slipped beneath the waistband of his boxer's and encircled his
hardening cock causing him to hiss.
"As I was saying," she purred and licked his palm.
"I would love to sleep on top of you with your cock buried inside me
and�"
He silenced her again kissing her passionately. She answered
by stroking his thickness to a throbbing arousal. Trip was mindless and slipped
his hand beneath her boxers to rub his fingers through her slit and test her
ability to take him. "God, you're hot, baby," he whispered against
her lips.
In answer, Lita shimmied out of her boxers and pulled the
blanket around her back. With no reservation, she climbed on top of him, and
rubbed her wetness over his cloth-covered erection. She lay flush on top of
him, barely any room to move.
His strong arms crushed her to him and he strained to
complete the union. "Goddamn!" he cursed the cloth that still
separated them. He reached down and wiggled out of the offensive material and
sighed as the material finally released his aching flesh.
She lifted her hips slightly as he held himself and guided
the tip of his cock into her tender flesh. They both moaned as the coupling
deepened.
"Oh my � Charlie!" she gasped, as he slipped a
hand between them and started stroking her clit, the other hand securing the
blanket around them.
She trembled on top of him and he felt the muscular
contractions around him. He watched as she went off like a firecracker on top
of him and smiled. He hadn't even gotten started as he thrust his hips deeper,
earning a gasp and a moan from her lips.
"So hot baby," he groaned and flicked his thumb
against her sensitive nub. "And tight."
She pleaded with him to end it, but he slowly rocked her
back and forth. "When we're alone, I'm going to taste every inch of
you," he murmured hotly next to her ear and she cried out.
Encouraged by his seduction of words, he continued.
"I'm going to spread you before me and feast like a starving man."
Lita twitched on top of him, her passionate nature almost
overwhelming him. "Yes," she hissed and turned the tables on him.
"Promises, promises," she taunted and rocked
quickly on his shaft, glorying in the feel of his flesh hitting her cervix.
Trip nibbled on her earlobe and gave a strangled moaned as
he came. They lay there panting and exhausted and Trip shifted to withdraw from
her.
"Don't move," she whispered desperately and
wiggled her wet heat around his diminished cock. "I want to sleep this
way."
It was like being encased in a warm cocoon.
--
The chime sounded and he opened his eyes, the ghostly figure
of her evaporating from his dream. He rolled over and pressed the com panel.
"Go ahead."
"Sir, a ship is on its way," Gomez paused.
"It's Enterprise. She's a maximum warp and running silent."
Reed sprang out of bed and started to get dressed. "Red
alert."
--
"What's our ETA?" Travis asked as he hovered over
the helm. Technically, he was still obeying orders. They were still running
silent, but he had broken formation. He wasn't about to ignore an S.O.S. and he
had ordered Enterprise to assist, mission be damned. The Starfleet brass had
better signal them soon. If not, Forrest was as good as gone, free to plot his
revenge. He breathed a sigh of relief as he realized the Kennedy and Grissom
had followed him, though only at warp three.
"Sir," the crewman at the com started. "I'm
receiving a priority one from Starfleet!"
Travis breathed a sigh of relief. "On screen."
A fuzzy image of Admiral Bryant, a tall lanky man with an
established balding pattern, appeared on the screen. "You can head on back
to Jupiter Station, Commander. The perpetrators have been rounded up
here."
"With all due respect, admiral, we've received a
distress signal from the Intrepid and�"
The screen split and Captain Zamora cut into the
conversation. "We've been monitoring the signal for the last twenty-six
hours and�"
"You mean to tell me that you've done nothing to assist
them and �"
"The mission parameters dictated that�"
Travis had had it. "Fuck this mission!" he shouted
before he killed the com link.
"When we're in range, hail the Intrepid," he
commanded as he sat down in the captain's chair.
--
Four hours of air left before the recyclers completely shut
down and now he had to contend with Enterprise. Their estimated ETA was two
hours, forty-six minutes. Reed entered the armory and started going over
checklists. He wasn't going down without a fight. Lieutenant Gomez walked up to
him and cleared her throat.
"With all due respect, sir, you're place is on the
bridge."
Reed couldn't deny her logic and acknowledged her statement
with a slight nod and left.
--
"We're in range," the crewman said as he punched
in various codes to hail the Intrepid.
"Hail them," Hoshi shouted, her agitation
mounting.
Travis merely nodded to the crewman to comply and the screen
blink to life in front of them.
--
The lift door opened and Reed walked onto the bridge and
stopped dead in his tracks. Her ghost haunted him even when he was awake. He
walked slowly down the walkway and made his way to the chair, his eyes never
leaving her figure.
"Captain Reed, what is the nature of your
emergency?" Travis repeated.
Reed finally tore his eyes from the apparition and answered
the younger man. "Our air recyclers are getting ready to shut down. We've
close to five hundred people on board from the Nantellis system." He
didn't even question anything any more his eyes glancing back toward the figure
of her on the bridge of the Enterprise.
Finally that figure moved and spoke. "My crew. Did you
retrieve my crew? Did you keep your promise?" She walked closer to Travis
and tucked her hair behind her ear, her swollen cheek visible to all to see.
Luckily, he was near his seat and sat down. Reed glanced at Mayweather.
"Where's Archer?"
"In custody," Travis replied.
Reed remained silent and Sato finally broke the silence.
"It's a long story. I'll explain everything to you later."
-----
TBC