Farthest Space: The Wrath of Jan

© copyright 2005, Ellen Fisher
Cover art and design by P.L. Nunn, © copyright 2010

All rights reserved.
 
This is a work of fiction
.
Names, character, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

His new communications officer was blue-skinned.

All over.

Captain Steven T. McNeill’s eyes widened slightly as he took in the sight of his new officer.
 
She was quite lovely, if you didn’t object to an extra set of arms, and her long, midnight blue hair flowed down her back in a rippling waterfall, almost to her rounded derriere.
 
For the sake of his concentration, he couldn’t help but wish it flowed down her front instead.
 
Unfortunately, her species, the Noo’dis’t, believed clothes were an abomination and an affront to nature, and they refused to wear clothing under any circumstances.
 
There was absolutely no question she was pale blue all over, from the crown of her head to the tips of her dainty little…

“The decks have already been swabbed once today, Captain.”

At his second-in-command’s dry comment, Steven’s head whipped around.
 
He found Commander Vaish watching him through steely eyes.
 
“I beg your pardon, Number One?”

“Your tongue, sir.
 
It was hanging nearly to the deck.
 
I thought perhaps you intended to begin scrubbing the floor with it.”

Anyone else would have made that comment with a touch of humor, but not Vaish.
 
If she had a sense of humor, he’d never located it.
 
She was a beautiful woman too, and the alien cast of her features only added to her distinctiveness, yet her stunning beauty gave the impression of having been carved out of a glacier.
 
Her pale lavender hair was always pulled up tightly at the back of her head, displaying her pointed ears, and her strange, slanted eyes, an unearthly shade of yellow, never showed the slightest flicker of emotion.
 

“My tongue was not…” Steven began, then thought better of it.
 
His tongue probably
had
been hanging out of his mouth.
 
When a man saw a gorgeous set of forward blasters, blue-skinned or otherwise, he couldn’t really be expected not to look, could he?

He got more of an eyeful than he expected when his new communications officer marched toward him and saluted smartly, causing her right breast to jiggle in a very interesting way.
 
Her left breast rippled too, presumably just to keep the right one company.
 
He stood up hastily and returned the salute.

“Lieutenant S’ansi reporting for duty, sir!”

He frowned for a moment, reflecting that he’d reviewed the new duty roster yesterday, and he somehow recalled that S’ansi was a human male.
 
Evidently there was either a problem with the records, or a flaw in his memory.
 
Not that it mattered.
 
He wasn’t sorry in the least to discover S’ansi was female.

He smiled at her warmly.
 
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant.”

Beside him he heard Vaish’s low, sardonic voice.
 
“Of
course
it is.”

He was a little irritated by her insinuating tone.
 
As if he’d ever have sex with a colleague.
 
Although he’d made love to a Noo’dis’t woman once before, three years ago, and he had to admit the four arms definitely added to the experience.
 
His thoughts started drifting as he recalled exactly what Noo’dis’t women did with those extra arms.

“Do other humans drool on such a regular basis?” Vaish inquired coolly.

I wasn’t drooling
, Steven thought.
 
Although the front of his uniform did seem a bit damp.
 
He made a mental note that there must be a problem with the environmental controls.

“You need to report in four units,” he said to S’ansi, ignoring Vaish and her acerbic tone.
 
They’d worked together for five years, and he’d learned to ignore her snide comments.
 
Mostly.
 
“In the meantime, why don’t you look around the
Arisia
a bit?
 
Get settled in?”

“I’d like that, sir,” she said, smiling back at him in a way that exposed her sharp, feline teeth.
 
“It’s a beautiful ship.”

“Best ship in the Fleet,” he said gruffly.
 
He was lucky to be captain of the Fleet’s flagship, and he knew it.
 
The
Arisia
, dark gray and almost spherical but for the wings and tail that were used to maneuver through atmosphere when the ship landed on a planet, was home to two hundred and fifty of the Patrol’s best officers.
 
He was proud of his crew, and he loved every inch of the graceful, massive ship, from her smoothly curved hull to her efficient, hard-working engines.
 

The
Arisia
was more than a starship.
 
It was home.

“Best captain in the Fleet as well,” S’ansi said, still smiling.

Beside him Steven heard a noise he was almost certain was a snort of disgust.
 
But when he turned his head to look at Vaish, her face was as calm and composed as ever.

“You have the bridge, Number One,” he said.
 
“I’ll show Lieutenant S’ansi to her quarters.”

“Naturally,” Vaish said under her breath.

“I beg your pardon?”

Vaish sat down in the big central chair and looked up at him, her yellow eyes unblinking.
 
“I said of course, sir.”

*****

Vaish watched as Captain McNeill strode away, across the wide, circular bridge.
 
He was a sight to command any woman’s attention--
 
tall and muscular, with golden hair falling free to his broad shoulders.
 
And his powerful back tapered down to an incredible ass, she reflected, looking at the smooth, graceful motion of his buttocks displayed by his tight-fitting black pants.

Of course, she thought, it was totally appropriate that the man had a nice ass.

The man
was
an ass.

Not that she would ever say so to his face.
 
She was a professional, after all, and she prided herself on maintaining a certain cool detachment.
 
But she remembered the way he’d practically drooled over the Noo’dis’t woman, the way his eyes had fastened onto her like a tractor field grabbing onto a vessel, and she almost growled with annoyance.
 
The man had absolutely no sense of chastity, of self-control.
 
He’d sleep with anything female.

Except, of course, for her.

Not that she wanted to have sex with Steven T. McNeill, she amended hastily.
 
In fact, the thought was utterly revolting.
 
Repulsive, even.
 
Yes, definitely, that was the word… repulsive.
 

And yet it was mildly annoying to be aware that he’d served with her for five years and never noticed that she was female.

She realized she was still staring toward the lift, into which his gorgeous butt had disappeared, and she turned hastily toward the viewscreen before the bridge crew noticed her preoccupation, fixing her most professional, cold, and impassive look onto her features.

It wasn’t as if she had the slightest interest as to what Captain McNeill planned to do with his new communications officer.

She really didn’t care in the least.

*****

As he walked with S’ansi through the immaculate, white-walled corridors of the
Arisia
, McNeill noticed that the view from behind was just as impressive as the view from the front.
 
In fact, he decided with the objectivity of a connoisseur, she was pretty damned impressive from all angles.
 
He wouldn’t mind getting a closer look at her from a few more angles, he thought.
 
It was really too bad he never slept with colleagues.

Not that he’d ever permitted respect for a colleague to stop him from looking, especially when the colleague in question was stark naked.
 
He might be a professional, but he wasn’t dead.

They reached her quarters, and he pressed his palm against the silver panels of the door.
 
It slid open smoothly, but with a sound that was reminiscent of a wolf whistle.
 
McNeill looked reprovingly at the metal plates of the ceiling.

“Fred,” he said.
 
“Be polite.”

“What?” answered a disembodied voice.
 
“I’ve got eyes, you know.”

“You do not.”

“Well, cameras, then.
 
You can’t blame a guy for looking.”

No, he couldn’t, particularly when his own
cameras
had been pointed squarely in the same direction as Fred’s.
 
McNeill shot an apologetic glance at S’ansi, not sure whether he was apologizing for Fred’s behavior or his own.
 
“Our computer, FRD-280.
 
Better known as Fred.
 
He has certain, ah, lascivious tendencies.”

“You programmed me,” Fred reminded him.

McNeill felt his cheeks flush slightly.
 
“Yes.
 
Well.
 
Do try to be polite to our newest crew member, will you?”

“Is she our newest crew member?”
 
Fred paused for a moment.
 
“I don’t have her in the database.”

“We were expecting a new communications officer,” Steven reminded him.
 
Which was absurd.
 
He shouldn’t have to remind Fred of anything.

“Yes, but that was a human male.
 
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this doesn’t look like a human male to me.”

Steven couldn’t argue with that.
 
He shrugged, remembering his own brief surprise at S’ansi’s appearance.
 
He had been right; she
was
listed in the database as a human male.
 
A vague sensation of unease niggled at the back of his brain, but he pushed it back.
 
He’d had a bad experience with the one Noo’dis’t woman, three years before, and the memory made him suspicious of Noo’dis’ts in general.
 
But their species was a loyal part of the
Alliance
, so his reaction was entirely unwarranted.