Nebula

"How much longer?" growled the Romulan, moving his attention back to her face.

"Who knows? Hopefully it's not long. What's the tolerance on the heating, anyway? Will it cut out at some point?"

"I don't know," he snapped, "it's your..." then his voice softened a little, "no, I suppose it probably isn't Federation work, not this time. The station just wasn't built for this... peculiar situation."

She nodded her acceptance of the admission, and added, "it might be something we did that attracted the life forms. Not that it could have been predicted."

He seemed too hot and tired to argue, "probably not." There was a short, awkward silence, before he added, "I don't mind if you take that off, by the way. If it helps."

"I don't think it makes much difference at this point," she replied, eyeing him directly, and not even needing her telepathy to know what he was thinking. "So I'll keep it on."

"Suit yourself." He sighed and drummed his fingers against the wall, a curiously human gesture. "It's been too long, anyway. Let's cut the power now, and start again from scratch later."

"You'll need to ask..."

"We've got it!" came Svetlana's excited voice over the comms. "If we can modify the station's deflector grid, we can get it to repel the lifeforms. Add that to a quick pulse through the station, and we can purge the circuitry without harm to ourselves. I can send the schematics of the changes we need through to Jaliba and Renat."

Sienae's firm voice cut in, "do you agree Satra?"

"I do, captain. This should work."

A short while later, the data was pouring onto their PADDs, and the two engineers studied the schematics with interest.

"This isn't going to be easy..." said Renat, doubtfully.

"I didn't say it was," argued Satra, showing some slight irritation with her fellow Romulan, "but have you got a better alternative?"

"As it happens, yes. Rather than broil alive for no good reason, we get out of here."

"Not happening," said Sienae, icily, "we were hired to do this job, and that is what we are going to do, unexpected complications notwithstanding."

Jaliba leaned over towards Renat's PADD, speaking into that, instead of her own. "We'll do that, captain," she said, deliberately using the Romulan's honorific, "we'll get onto it straight away." And she jabbed her finger down on the 'cut' icon, closing the comm line.

"What are you doing?" snapped Renat, as she felt him struggle to keep his aggression in check.

"Motivating you," she said, calmly, pressing a few icons on her own PADD before putting it down and quickly pulling her sweat-dampened vest over her head and throwing it on the floor. She put her hands on her hips, noting how the Romulan's anger had already been replaced by a rising tension in his groin as his eyes took in the shape of her body and how the cream-coloured bra offset her dark skin.

"Right," she said, "I just locked the doors across the station. Which means that neither of us can leave this room, and we can't be interrupted. We can blame it on the life forms, when somebody asks. The doors will stay locked for 60 minutes, so that's how long you have to make the changes to the deflectors, while I coordinate from here," she tapped the console, the only clearly Federation piece of equipment in the room. "And here's the motivating part: once the repairs are done, and this room starts cooling down, the rest of this clothing comes off, and you can do what you like to me for however much we have left of the 60 minutes. Deal?"

He stared at her wordlessly, and she could sense that he was considering denying his attraction to her, but the lust quickly won out. A slight grin touched his lips, probably the most she had seen out of him since they had met. "Deal," he said, and headed double-quick across the room to where a panel led through to the innards of the deflector array.

He soon had it removed, and darted inside, having to climb up into the guts of the machinery, out of her field of view. Jaliba leant over the console, comparing the schematics with what needed doing, before calling out after him, "and I warn you... you'd better not take 59 minutes to fix this!"

She decided to forestall any questions, and possible interruption, by telling the others about the door straight away; they seemed to buy it. The two science officers had already joined most of the others in the station control room, and the five of them were either just lying back, sweltering in the heat, or pacing the room impatiently, depending on their inclinations. Lugmilla was the only exception, having been checking something on the shuttle at the time. A quick glance at her mind revealed that she had stripped to vests and shorts, and was putting her feet up on the seats for a quiet doze.

Jaliba turned her attention back to the console, a Federation interface with the old Romulan infrastructure of the station. She was able to call out to Renat from time to time, advising him on how things were going, and what he needed to do next. Even so, her eyes kept slipping to the countdown timer she had opened in one corner, wondering how long this was actually going to take.

Clearly, she shouldn't really be doing this. It broke quite a number of regulations, although, without any internal monitoring on the station, it was hard to see how anyone would find out. But it was getting things done, and Renat had looked rather good with his shirt off. She found that the illicit thrill of breaking the rules, such a short distance from others of her crew, was exciting in itself, adding to the tight feeling in her chest as she anticipated the deed itself.

It was as well that she was the only telepath on board, considering the emotions she had to be radiating right now.

She blinked, rubbing a hand across her brows as a drop of sweat fell into her eye, and brought her focus back to the task at hand. 20 minutes in and most of the work seemed to have done, but things seemed to be slowing. She cast her mind towards the crawl space where Renat was working, finding that he was starting to flag, the heat really getting to him. Perhaps he needed a reminder.

"Just hold that connection for a moment," she called out, and quickly began to strip off her trousers and boots. Picking up the uniform trousers, she stepped across to the open space left by the access panel. "40 minutes left," she told Renat, the sudden closeness of her voice making him look down, and threw the garment onto the flooring where he could see it.

There was a pause, and then "it won't be much longer" echoed down from the crawlspace above.

Jaliba headed back to the control panel, smiling to herself as she sensed the Romulan returning to work with increased vigour.

Nonetheless, it wasn't easy work, and the timer seemed to be dragging. Had she even made the right decision, she wondered? He was a Romulan, after all, and who knew what that would mean? Well, too late to back out now.

"The work is complete!"

The words from behind the opening, accompanied by a scuffling sound, brought her back to the present.

"I need to try it first!" she reminded him, fingers dancing over the icons in front of her.

There was an audible hum, and green lights started flashing up across the screen. Just a few seconds later, she felt what seemed like a blast of icy air across her back - although in reality it was probably not that cold yet, just a dramatic change from what she had become accustomed to. She opened the comms again.

"It's working!" she told the others, although she could tell by the muted cheers from at least some of them that they had already noticed, "it looks like it might take a little longer to fix the doors, though. But we'll get on to that now."

And with that, she closed the line.

"You intend to keep the deal?" asked Renat.

She looked up, seeing that he had already stripped to his shorts, and was standing at the far side of the room. She could sense his suspicion, doubtless honed by years of living among people that weren't exactly known for their honesty. There would be little he could do now, had it all been a trick to entice him.

Jaliba undid her bra, and flung it into a corner. Renat's eyes widened, and, with a slightly wolfish leer, he pulled his shorts down and stepped out of them, rapidly striding across the room towards her.

Naked, he looked, as she had suspected, essentially the same as a Betazoid from the neck down. His cock, rising from a patch of dark hair, was of above average size, but hardly freakish. Perhaps the most dramatic difference was the head, which was the same shape as she expected, but was a distinct light green in colour.

Renat took Jaliba's head in his hands, and kissed her forcefully, tongue probing deep into her mouth. She was acutely aware of his cock pressing into her groin, only the fabric of her knickers keeping them apart. His mind was clouded by desire, a carnal lust backed by a need to dominate and control, to prove the superiority of Romulans over humans (it was evident that he still had not realised her true race).

She responded to the kissing in kind, pressing her body into his, hands running down his still sweat-drenched back to grasp his tight buttocks, pressing her fingers into them. Cooler air was flooding them now, that sensation alone physical and enticing, delicious against her skin. Seeing that she wasn't going to break away, Renat moved his hands down from her head and grabbed a breast in each, kneading them, feeling her swollen dark nipples against his palms, then between his fingers.

Finally, he pulled away from the kiss, taking a step away from her. Grabbing her shoulders, he turned her round so that her back was facing him. Jaliba did nothing to resist as he forcefully yanked her knickers down and she sensed him admiring the round globes of her ass. He smacked her lightly on each side, not enough to really hurt, but certainly enough to sting just a little, then used his feet to kick the inside of her lower legs, forcing her feet apart. A shove against her shoulder blades forced her down, partly bent over the control panel, so that her slit was on open display to him.

The Betazoid gripped the top of the panel with one hand, tapping the display to 'lock' with the other, lest she accidentally hit something during what was to come. From reading his mind and intentions, now entirely focussed on her, she could tell that that was likely to be necessary.

Even so, with only his surface thoughts apparent to her, she was almost taken by surprise when he suddenly thrust himself into her, pushing her forward with such force that she almost bumped her hips on the bottom of the panel. Grapping her waist, he pulled her back and slid himself out before ramming his green-tipped cock home again, building up a rhythm as he fucked her hard from behind.

Jaliba couldn't help but cry out in pleasure, gasping as she steadied herself against the force of his exertions, both hands now gripping the top of the panel, loose breasts wobbling with every thrust. Gasping, Renat took a breather, pulling out, then reaching round to grab one of those breasts, massaging it then pulling sharply on the nipple. He smacked her ass again, harder this time, then thrust back inside her with a loud groan.

He slid his left hand down her back, not breaking the rhythm of his hips slapping against hers, easing the thumb into the crease of her buttocks, eliciting a loud yelp from the Betazoid woman as he pushed the tip into her anus. His other hand was moving down, too, darting between her legs to rub the top of her clit.

Jaliba's telepathy enhanced the sex, as it did every time. She could sense in Renat's mind how he enjoyed taking charge, how fucking her bent over a Federation console was adding to his pleasure, as if he were dominating the alien culture just as much as he was the alien woman groaning with delight in front of him.

But, more than that, she could feel his physical joy, every sexually charged emotion running through his mind, even the precise details of his sensations. Jaliba not only felt the Romulan's hard cock pounding inside her, the feel of his skin against hers, the thumb pressing into her ass up to the knuckle, but, simultaneously, felt the tightness of her own cunt as he fucked her, as if she herself had a cock thrusting into a willing woman. She felt the tight focus of his pleasure, every tiny physical sensation along every fraction of his member, even felt the shape of her own nub as he rubbed it with his finger.

She was both the penetrated and the penetrator, two feelings in perfect harmony, flooding her body together.

Renat paused for a moment, catching his breath, and giving her the opportunity to do the same. But only a short while later, pulling his hands free from their previous tasks, he gripped her buttocks, and pushed her forward against the console, thrusting his cock home again as he did so. A moment later, his thumb was back in her ass, this time pushing in right to the base.

Jaliba whimpered, gritting her teeth to avoid screaming with pleasure - the others may have been four floors up, but the station was only so large. Her breasts were pressed tight against the console, sliding up and down against its smooth plastic surface, making it squeak as Renat pounded into her harder, and quicker, than before. She couldn't last much longer, but fortunately she could sense that neither could he.

She got a brief flash of his thoughts through the nearly overwhelming double flood of sensation that swamped her body. Any second now, he was going to pull out, whip her round to face him, and shoot as much of his seed as he could over her face and breasts.

Which was a problem, not least because there wasn't a wash basin down here. Jaliba had to think fast.

"Come inside me, baby!" she moaned, speaking words for the first time since they'd started, "make me yours, make me submit by filling me with all you've got!"

It sounded corny, almost ridiculous, but, in the heat of the moment, it apparently did the trick. Renat gripped her around the waist with his free hand, lifting her up until her feet actually left the floor, using her weight to force the Betazoid's body even harder down onto his cock. His thumb popped loose as he did so, but he immediately rammed it back home again.

That was all it took. With a loud moan, the Romulan exploded inside her. Her mind locked with his, she felt his climax, felt the seed rushing through his cock and spurting inside her, both from his perspective, and from her own. She felt two simultaneous orgasms swamp her body, reinforcing and amplifying each other, one her own, a white-hot glow suffusing her, the other his, a forceful release inside the body of an alien woman, better than anything he had experienced in a long, long time.

He released her, and Jaliba dropped to her knees, legs too weak to hold her up any longer. Renat sat down heavily, gasping for breath, cock already beginning to soften , then lay out on his back full length, let out a long "wooh!" of pleasure.

Jaliba looked down at him, seeing that he was genuinely grinning for the first time since they had met. She had to agree with him; that had most definitely been worth it.

--***--

It took some time for the engineers to fix whatever had happened to the doors, and Svetlana noted that it wasn't doing anything to improve Sienae's temper. Eventually however, the door to the control slid open and Jaliba and Renat walked in, looking quite exhausted.

"Do you want some water?" asked Akilah, leaping to her feet as the two entered the room, "you both look like you need it."

Jaliba nodded, "it was... harder work than we thought, but everything should be fixed now." The nurse handed her a glass, and she drunk it down in a single gulp, as Renat gestured for one too.

"Yeah," said Lugmilla, appearing behind them, having spent the intervening time down closer to engineering than the others had, "I thought I heard some banging."

The two suddenly looked across at the Tellarite woman who simply raised her eyebrows with an exaggerated look of innocence. Svetlana assumed there was some meaning in what she'd just said, but she had no idea what it might be, and the three clearly weren't going to explain, so perhaps it didn't matter.

"So what now?" asked Sienae, ignoring the pair, "are we done?"

"Yes, ma'am," replied Satra, "it looks like it. Svetlana and I have worked out what the problem is, and the new shield should hold more or less indefinitely. The station is back to full functioning. We might want to set up an automated purge of the systems to run at a regular interval, just in case, but, otherwise," she clapped her hands, "we did what we came to."

Svetlana nodded, "there's some fascinating data coming through from the monitoring equipment now that it's back up. Much of it to do with the life-forms - I assume that they only recently reached this part of the nebula, or we'd have seen them before. The way they use the magnetic fields and the ionisation..." she bent back over her PADD, engrossed in the data again.

"It should be a straightforward trip back," added Lugmilla, "now that we know what the issue is."

"In fact," said Jaliba, "we can probably rig the Endeavour so that it can get straight through the nebula and join us here. That might make things simpler."

"You won't get a good signal over that distance," pointed out the Tellarite, "not through the nebula."

Renat seemed about to object, but Lugmilla gave him a hard look, and, for reasons that Svetlana couldn't fathom, he apparently changed his mind, "uh... yes, that's right. What do you..." he looked back at the Tellarite questioningly, "um... suggest that we ought to do?"

"Fly back to the Endeavour, give them the necessary information, and come back here for a final checkout. And to set that purging cycle."

"Yes, we'll probably need some help with that one," agreed Jaliba, still looking at Lugmilla, "you know, to be sure it's all set permanently."

Sienae was eyeing the engineers suspiciously, evidently aware that they were up to something, but apparently no more able to work out what it was than Svetlana could.

"Probably shouldn't leave the station empty, though," said Lugmilla, "you two might want to stay behind? Just in case."

"No," said Jaliba, causing the Tellarite to raise her eyebrows, "I think we've had quite enough for today, and, as I say, everything's fine now. But you know what... all that data coming through about the nucleogenic beings... it would be really useful if we could get more of that. Why don't the two science nerds stay behind and examine it?"

"Now that," said Lugmilla with a grin, "is an even better idea. I suggest we go with that."

Sienae narrowed her eyes, but didn't seem able to think of an obvious objection, not as long as one of her own was among the skeleton crew. It likely didn't hurt that it was obvious Svetlana herself, with her petite frame, wasn't going to be any danger to anyone, even had she been inclined to be.

"Are you two good with that?" she asked.

"Absolutely," said Satra, before Svetlana could even get a word in, "I'd love to get the chance for some serious science."

"It will probably be 24 hours or so," pointed out Lugmilla, "but at least you won't be interrupted."

Svetlana knew that something was going on over her head, but still couldn't fathom what the others were talking about. It was as if it was in code of some sort, or that some of her crew-mates knew something she didn't. It seemed a strange suggestion... but, at the same time, the data was fascinating, and she really wanted more time to look over it, and to watch it coming in in real time.

She looked up at Satra, who smiled reassuringly, presumably as excited by the thought of nucleogenic autosynthesis as she was. "Yes, that's fine. It will give me time to look this over properly."