Stardate 51342.2, Beta Quadrant, Planet NGC 25667-V

Lieutenant (junior grade) Jeffrey Tovette, assistant geologist aboard the USS T’Sharan, NCC-87542, finished his assignment on this uninhabited planet and prepared to beam to his ship.

Starfleet orders transferred Jeff from the USS Coventry to the USS T’Sharan nine months ago. He was lucky to transfer off the Coventry after only six months. He hadn’t enjoyed the Coventry much. In contrast, life aboard the T’Sharan was enjoyable so far, even if he spent most of his off-duty time alone. He needed to work on making friends aboard his new ship.

Jeff was a T’Sharan ‘plank owner,’ an ancient Earth naval term that signified that he was part of the commissioning crew. Tradition stipulated that Jeff or his family could request a ‘plank’ from the deck of the T’Sharan when she decommissioned. Starfleet followed that tradition to this day. T’Sharan, between the people he worked with and the ship itself, was a great place to be. The Coventry, between the people he worked with and the ship itself, had been old and tired.

The T’Sharan was the newest of the Block II Legacy class deep space explorers. She sailed for her ten-year voyage toward a previously unexplored section of the Beta Quadrant after commissioning three months ago. Jeff already felt comfortable on his new ship, which made him feel more relaxed than during his first posting. T’Sharan’s destination meant there weren’t too many chances for a transfer in his future that he could see, so that was good.

The geology department on T’Sharan differed from his previous ship. The main reason was that the department head was fair-minded and let you do your work without micromanaging. His department head, Lieutenant Commander Donna Reeves, was fair, told you what she expected of you, and was fun to work for. She was a stone fox and looked damn good in the Starfleet Standard Uniform, too. A big plus in his book.

That she wasn’t the flaming asshole that the Coventry’s Commander Richard Jones had been was a godsend, too.

Jeff was the only male geologist on the crew. The other seven were all female: five humans, one Vulcan, and one Andorian. Many a time, Jeff went off shift sporting a major chubby because all of his fellow geologists were beautiful, not just LCDR Reeves. Jeff, as the junior officer in the department, was careful not to be caught staring at the others and tried to keep a firm rein on his thoughts.

“Commander?” Jeff asked. “I’ve finished my scans, Ma’am.”

Jeff handed LCDR Reeves his report after she finished talking to LT Shravan, the Andorian geologist, and his section chief. Jeff fought to keep his eyes from following his coworker’s shapely butt as she walked away, his gaze firmly fixed on the commander’s eyes.

“Very good, Lieutenant,” Reeves responded, reading the preliminary report on the offered PADD. “Anything of note?”

“It was fairly standard iron ore, Ma’am, so no real surprises. There might be a problem with the tricorder, though. There were a few unusual, intermittent readings when I did my scans.” Jeff shrugged. “Nothing I could reproduce, but still strange.”

“Hmmm,” Reeves remarked.

Reeves brushed a stray lock of her deep brown hair behind her ear as she looked through the report. Jeff let his eyes wander over his boss’s fantastic body once more; he snapped them back to her face just before she looked up.

“Run a Level 2 diagnostic on the tricorder when you get to the lab,” Reeves told Jeff. “Keep the sample in isolation, and have the transporter chief run the decontamination sequence on you as you beam up.”

“Aye-aye, Ma’am. Will you have another assignment for me after that?”

“No, Jeff,” Reeves said, allowing herself to smile at her very earnest junior geologist. “I just gave Tiisla the last task for the moment. With a possibly fluky tricorder, we couldn’t trust any of your further readings. You can call it a day once you store the sample on the ship and finish the diagnostic.”

Donna Reeves hadn’t missed Jeff’s reactions to her body when he was around her, but noticed that he tried very hard to hide them. She hadn’t had a single complaint from the rest of the staff. Most made the same comments: they believed Jeff found them attractive, but tried very hard to conceal his reactions and be respectful.

“Aye-aye, Ma’am. Thank you.” Jeff came briefly to attention before walking a few meters away. “Tovette to T’Sharan. Transporter Room 2?”

“Transporter Room 2, Chief Petty Officer Ramsey, Sir,” the chief’s voice said through Jeff’s comm badge.

“Chief, one to beam and one sample for isolation. LCDR Reeves recommends decon sequence.”

“Aye, Lieutenant. Stand by ... Ready, Sir.”

“Energize.”

Jeff felt the transporter sequence start, then a searing pain before his world went black.

The pain was the first thing that registered after that.

A blinding pain behind Jeff’s eyes accompanied by waves of nausea, followed slowly by the rest of his senses returning. Jeff ruined the carpet next to his bed not long after that.

“Well, I see you’re awake,” Doctor Henry Campbell, the perpetually rumpled Chief Medical Officer of USS T’Sharan, remarked as he approached, wearing a wry smile.

“Sorry about that, Sir,” Jeff croaked, wiping his mouth with the sheet from his bed.

“Nonsense, young man,” Campbell replied, waving his hand. “Carpet, we can clean. You’re lucky to still be with us.”

“What happened, Sir?”

“There was some random discharge while you beamed back to the ship,” Campbell said as he bent over to read the bio-bed’s readout over the top of his ancient reading glasses. “Hit you square in the head.” He lifted a hypospray to Jeff’s neck and injected him with something. The pain and nausea quickly evaporated. “That would explain the pain and nausea you felt.”

LCDR Reeves walked through the Sickbay door with LT Shravan close behind.

«They’re both so beautiful... » Jeff thought before he could control his thoughts.

“How is he, Doctor?” Reeves asked as she and Shravan approached Jeff’s bed.

“Well,” Campbell said, “it’s just my opinion, but you should give him a day or two off the duty roster before he collects rocks again.”

Reeves smiled at the disheveled old man’s joke, while Shravan looked mildly annoyed at the human’s sense of humor.

“Seriously, Commander,” Campbell continued. “LT(j.g.) Tovette’s lucky the discharge didn’t disrupt his pattern. And that he only had a headache when he woke up.”

Campbell didn’t mention Jeff’s other symptom, although everyone heard the cleaning ‘bot scrubbing the carpet on the other side of the bed.

“Do we know what caused the discharge?” Reeves asked.

“No, and engineering hasn’t seen anything like it,” Campbell replied to Reeves with a twinkle in his eye. “So, just another typical day in Starfleet.” He turned back to Jeff. “Feeling better, young man?”

“Yes, Sir,” Jeff replied immediately.

“Good. Now, get out.”

The old doctor winked at him and walked back to his office. Jeff swung his legs over the side of the bio-bed and sat up, waiting for the pain or nausea to return, but they didn’t.

“Lieutenant, you’re off duty for the next few days,” Reeves informed him. “I want you to take it easy.”

“Ma’am, I’m fine,” Jeff protested. “We’ve got way too much work waiting for us on this survey...”

“The rest of us will be fine, Jeff,” Reeves replied, putting a hand on his shoulder. “We can handle the extra work for a couple of days, but we can’t afford to lose you for the rest of our mission because you’re feeling gung-ho.”

Jeff tried to protest again, but Reeves raised her hand and cut him off.

“Lieutenant Shravan will escort you back to your quarters,” LCDR Reeves insisted.

“Aye-aye, Ma’am,” Jeff replied, knowing further protests were pointless.

Reeves smiled at her most junior scientist.

“I’ll look in on you tomorrow,” she said. “Get some rest.”

With that, Reeves turned and walked out. Jeff and Shravan left a few moments later.

“I’ll be fine, Ma’am,” Jeff said to his section leader as they walked, “if you need to get back to the lab.”

“Commander Reeves ordered me to escort you back to your quarters, so that is where my duty lies, at the moment. Besides, it is past the end of my shift,” Shravan replied, “so I am free to do as I wish. I wish to escort you to your quarters.” Tiisla paused, looking at Jeff out of the corner of her eye. “Jeffrey, we are now off duty. Can you not call me Tiisla?”

“Um, it, uh, wouldn’t be proper, Ma’am,” Jeff stuttered, feeling the blood rush to his face and elsewhere.

“Of course it is, Jeffrey. I may be your section leader while on duty, but I have only been in Starfleet one standard year longer than you. It is customary for lieutenants of both ranks to call each other by their given names.”

By now, they had reached the door to Jeff’s junior officer quarters. Tiisla turned to face him directly.

“Jeffrey?” Tiisla asked. “Do you not find me attractive?”

“Oh, Tiisla,” Jeff groaned, “that’s the problem! I find all of you attractive! Commander Reeves, you, T’Sera, Lisa, Catherine, Amanda, and Serena. You’re all the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen! And you’re all on this ship, all senior to me, and all in my department!”

Frustrated, Jeff slapped the sensor pad outside his door, which opened. Jeff stomped inside, with Tiisla close behind. Tiisla touched the pad on the inside of the door frame, closing the door. Jeff turned to see Tiisla just inside the closed door, her hands behind her back, looking at him with a pleading look.

«My God, she’s so damn beautiful, » Jeff thought for about the millionth time.

Tiisla’s look changed from pleading to determined, as if she came to a decision. She rapidly closed the short distance across Jeff’s cabin and pulled his head down into a searing kiss. Jeff snorted in surprise before gathering the shapely Andorian into his arms, pressing their bodies together.

Later, when they finished, Jeff slumped forward. Tiisla wrapped herself around him.

“Thank you, Tiisla,” he whispered to his lover while panting for breath. “That was amazing.”

“Yessss,” Tiisla purred, “it certainly was. Five times ... I have never climaxed five times during any encounter, Jeffrey...” Tiisla’s purring and her actions reversed Jeff’s shrinkage.

Tiisla noticed immediately. “Mmmm! Again? So soon, Jeffrey?” Tiisla brought her mouth up to his and kissed him deeply once again. “Ahhh! Yes, again! Please, Jeffrey!”

Jeff woke once during the night, desperately needing to empty his bladder. He found that he couldn’t move. Jeff realized it was because Tiisla was pressed against him and lay partially atop him. He gently disengaged, hoping he wouldn’t wake her. He didn’t. He slipped into the bathroom he shared with the next cabin to complete his business. When he returned, Tiisla had rolled over on her side away from Jeff. He slipped back into bed and spooned up behind her.