[This is another tribute to Star Trek, starting where the first story left off. I have borrowed unashamedly from the original episode "City in the Sky", because Leonard Nimoy has such a memorable line in that episode. I have also borrowed from E E Smith's classic "Lensman" series of sci-fi books – and see if you can spot where I have saluted "Barbarella" and "The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy". Again, the Prime Directive has been followed to the letter, and no sentient alien entities were hurt during the making of this story. NB, The Surgeon General has determined that Dargolian Tiger Weed is bad for your health.]
Extracted items from personal log – Yeoman Janice Rand.
We left the mining colony on the second planet of the Polygon System two days ago, and our present course was back to Atarxes III, to pick up an emergency consignment of the fragrance "Hyper-Kitten pour femme [and all contingent sub-species]". Our stay in the Polygon System was tedious and uneventful, except for the discovery of a mind-devouring alien in the mining tunnels, which threatened the lives of all the miners, and all the crew of the Enterprise, until Mr Spock did a Vulcan mind-meld with it, and taught it to sit up and beg. Ho hum!
Indebted to Mr Spock's ingenuity, and despite the feelings of certain crew members [Lieutenant Uhura and me!] that the Atarxes III mission is now of supreme importance, the Captain agreed to divert the starship's course so that we passed close to the spectacular Amethyst Nebula. As this nebula had never been examined at such close quarters before, our Science Officer was anxious to conduct as full an analysis as possible of all the relevant data. We went into standard orbit around a small, M-class planet, and he spent several hours gazing into the viewing-hood of his scanner, occasionally muttering "Interesting", or "Fascinating", and sometimes even "Intriguing", while Uhura and I hopped from one foot to another! She kept looking at me, and her look seemed to say, "Just you wait until the end of our watch, Janice". Wow!
Suddenly all the ship's alarms went off, and someone called "Red Alert!"
A ship had de-cloaked off our port bow. The Captain's immediate thought was Klingons, and he bristled. Up to now we have only ever encountered cloaking technology in ships from the Klingon Empire, but the vessel now materialising on the forward view-screen was certainly not one of theirs. It was blue and sleek, with a red upper-section on its nose cone, and two large nacelles hung below its forward section. That reminded me of something for a moment.
No sooner had it de-cloaked than it engaged us in a tractor-beam. The Captain ordered "Full Astern", but with the matter / anti-matter pods straining to burst, the Engineering Officer came on the com channel with an agonised, "Captain, she'll no' take much more o' this!" Reluctantly, the Captain ordered "All Stop". A strident voice came over the communications relay.
"You have invaded Kalonian territory, and our sensors show that you are engaged on a spying mission. This is clearly an act of aggression, and will not be tolerated. Your ship and all its crew are hereby under arrest, and subject to Kalonian military jurisdiction."
Well, the Captain argued the point [he always does] and threatened them with photon torpedoes [he always does that too!], but a well-aimed salvo from their forward disruptors took out our entire weapons array, so that was that.
"Resistance is useless," came the strident voice.
I thought, "Why is no one ever pleased to see us?"
The voice continued: "We have passed to your ship's computer the co-ordinates to which you will beam an away-team. The away-team will consist of Captain Kirk, Science Officer Spock, Doctor McCoy, Lieutenant Sulu, Ensign Chekhov, and two anonymous and expendable crewmen. Oh yes, and both Lieutenant Uhura and yeoman Janice Rand."
"Why those particular people?" demanded the Captain.
"Your away-teams always consist of the vital members of your command structure," answered the voice. "You always leave the ship without its commander, without its best brain, without the one person who knows the only cure for Romulan Flu, and without your entire navigation team. And you always take two anonymous and expendable crew-members. You are quite clearly an inferior and barbaric species. As for Uhura and Rand ....... well ......we have our reasons. You have two of your earth-minutes to comply, or your entire ship will be destroyed."
"Captain," said Mr Spock. "The co-ordinates they have given us are precisely three-point-zero-seven kilometres above ground level!"
"One minute and forty seconds!" said the voice.
"It seems we have no choice," said the Captain. "Mr Spock, Dr McCoy, Mr Sulu, Mr Chekhov, Lieutenant Uhura, Yeoman Rand – you're with me. We'll pick up two other crewmen on the way.
In the turbo-lift, Lieutenant Uhura's hand found mine. With one finger, she traced a little circle in my palm – the universal sign amongst all bi-manual species for the promise of sex. For one moment my mind, freshly trained at Starfleet Academy, remembered that amongst the swamp-dwellers of Toizarus 19, it also meant "I want to put my third tentacle in your ear", but one quick look at Uhura's face knocked that thought clean out of my head again! Since the incident with the open com-channel we had been, well, shall we say "an item". Boredom during off-duty periods was no longer an issue for me!
From the transporter room, we beamed directly to the given coordinates. To our surprise, we arrived in a city, suspended far above the surface of the planet. Mr Spock raised an eyebrow.
"Truly the most fascinating example of sustained anti-gravity levitation I have ever seen, Captain," he said.
As if on cue, in walked what I took to be a female Kalonian. I couldn't help it – my eyes were drawn straight to her bust, which stood out high and proud in front of her. "Truly the most fascinating example of sustained anti-gravity levitation I have ever seen," I thought. She was tall – taller than any of us, even Mr Spock. Despite her blue skin, she had to be the most ravishingly beautiful woman I had ever seen. Her hair, piled on her head like choux pastry and cream on a "coffee tower", was crimson. Her eyes were the shape of almonds, and were perched on perfect cheekbones. Though her mouth was small, her lips were full, and nestled below a slightly retrousse nose. Though she was clothed, she appeared to be naked, as the golden-hued garment she wore clung to every part of her body like a thin coat of paint, except for a cape, which floated like a wisp of cloud behind her. Her stomach was perfectly flat and, despite the fact that she had no navel, wonderful to see, leading down – oh my! – to a clearly-defined cleft. I was smitten. I forgot all about my lover who was standing next to me, but as the Kalonian woman approached [her eyes seemingly fixed on me alone] I began to feel Uhura seethe with jealousy. When I shot a glance to my right, however, I saw that she too had been transfixed by our captor.
"I am Arktura," she said. "I am Head of the High Council of the planet Kalon, which you have dared to invade. You are our prisoners, of course, but I promise that if you cooperate, your stay here will not be... too unpleasant ... For some of you, at least. You will be treated fairly, and may regard yourselves as our guests, if you wish."
The Captain stepped forward, jutting out his chin [he always does that!]. "We are from the Federation, and value our freedom above all else," he said. "What if we refuse to cooperate?"
In answer Arktura touched a device on her wrist. There was a noise – "Poing". I was expecting that; whenever anyone alien does something to us, there is always a noise like "Poing". On this occasion, its effect was instant. The expendable crewman was rendered anonymous, and the anonymous crewman was expended. The Captain started forward angrily, but was restrained by the Doctor, who growled in his ear, "Jim – no!"
"Your ship's doctor is very sensible, Captain," observed Arktura. She made a gesture, and several more Kalonian women entered, all dressed as she was, apart from the fact that they had no capes, and all bearing objects we took to be weapons of some kind. Except for Uhura and me, the away team were herded out of sight.
"And now for you......" said Arktura. She touched her wrist-device again, and I braced myself for oblivion. Poing! I was still there, and for a moment I thought I was naked. But when I looked down, I found that although my Starfleet uniform had gone, I was sheathed from neck to ankles and wrists in a covering of shimmering green. It felt amazing, like the gentlest of caresses in places that needed caressing, like a firm, supporting hand in places that needed support, and like nothing at all where freedom was needed. Sometimes it felt like all three at once! My breasts had certainly never known anything like it. They stood prouder than they ever had, like Arktura's though not so magnificent, supported by the fabric of the clothing, whilst my nipples were teased into erection as if by a cool breeze! I looked over at Uhura. Her covering was bronze. Her breasts seemed to have been moulded into perfect cones, like the anti-matter pods on a Tholian freighter, and her nipples were standing out like the bulkhead-lugs on the engineering deck of a starship! She was looking down at herself, hardly daring to believe what had happened to her. She ran her hands over her own body and shivered! I would not have been able to take my eyes from her, had it not been for the presence of Arktura. At that moment, the proud Kalonian seemed to be the most fabulous woman in the entire Alpha Quadrant!
"These clothes are of Kalonite," she said. "It is a substance which we produce on this planet. It serves for just about every purpose, but it surpasses all other fabrics when it comes to adornment for the female body. Or so we find. How do you like it?"
"Beautiful," murmured Uhura. "I feel so beautiful."
I felt the same. The fabric seemed to stimulate every nerve-ending in my body. I tried to pull myself together.
"Er ... where are all the Kalonian men?" I asked. "I didn't see any."
Arktura pursed her lips. "You aren't interested in seeing them, are you?" she said.
